Seems sad…

when the actions of one individual can have such a negative impact. I have fed back to Flying Kiwi and received a reply in return, both by email and as a comment on the blog. Suffice to say I am glad that I did feed back even though it has been such a negative experience. I am sure some good will come of it somewhere along the line.

Now to catch up with what I have been doing over the past few days. Sunday saw our drop off in W’ton and as the ‘tour guide’ I had to show the rest of the tour the way into W’ton and where Te Papa was, and where to eat. I met up with good friends L and C after they’d finished singing in a Nativity musical, and they took me back to their lovely place, in Brooklyn that has rather good views across the bay to Petone.

Monday was spent exploring W’ton and doing bits of shopping (like buying a few Christmas pressies). On tuesday  I joined another Lord of the Rings tour, which enabled me to see more of W’ton and it’s surrounds than I would’ve seen otherwise. We stopped by the Stone Street studios and Weta workshop (Including Weta everything under the sun) and saw that they don’t advertise themselves, or rather don’t advertise their location. Many warehouses nearby are used by them, and you wouldn’t have a clue if you strolled by. The local woods on Mount Victoria were used for many of the Hobbiton  wood scenes. Interestingly the guy who took us on the tour knew that certain areas had been used for filming, but not their exact location. He’s gone out on foot, with DVD and laptop and walked around until he’s found what he’s looking for. So, he played us the scene pointing out local landmarks (trees, etc), so we could identify the location too. And it wasn’t just about LOTR – Weta have done many other films, including I Robot and King Kong. So I have a pic of the ship used in the King Kong movie.

Last night (Tues night) I went with L and C to see the finale of the Nativity musical at their church. 3 youths were transported back to Judea and bumped into the wise men, the shepherds and ultimately Mary, Joseph and Jesus. It was very well done, and interspersed with carols so if I wasn’t as aware as I could possibly be that Christmas is approaching, I am now.

This morning, was another wet, windy and cold day, so this morning I spent confirming my flights, and packing and checking my luggage weight and then met up with L and C for lunch at Te Papa and then spent the afternoon wandering round it. It is enormous. They have a section on Maori tradition and culture, and also a section on immigration and emigration. It appears that NZ is experiencing a loss of people at the moment as they go in search of better paid jobs in Oz.

I have worked out where the airport bus leaves from in town, and I have a morning (depends on the weather what I do), and then I go to the airport for the long flights home. Incidentally, I found it quite odd (but perhaps this is because W’ton only has a tiny town centre) the shops beneath the high rise office blocks are so very different from any of the others – more upmarket, and consequently more expensive. Cuba street holds the more quirky shops and wee cafes, and then the other end of town has the big cinemas, theatres, and your everyday shops.