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Published: December 30th 2015
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We spent a couple days in Wellington. Our first day included a walk around the city then booking in at our special hostel (booked by mistake as it’s not really meant to have children but it was right in Courtney Place). Our next day was a full day LOTR movie tour with too many sites to name – but here are a couple – Mina Tirith, Isengard, the Hutt River filing location, the Rivendell main filming location (partly recreated), and Mount Victoria where multiple Shire locations were filmed. I also walked up to a Maori Pa. Our last stop was the Weta Studios where we got a short tour. The next day we visited the Te Papa museum, then drove around the Miramar peninsula and visited Scott’s College.
We followed the western coast road north stopping to look at the views and visit LOTR sites. As the weather was fantastic, we took the inside road to Ohakune and Tongariro National Park. This was our second visit here on our trip and we had been snowed out the first time but this time everything was perfect. We visited waterfalls, the Whakapapa Grand Chateau (where my Dad worked many years ago) and
climber up into the mountains where Mordor was filmed. We walked a portion of the Tongariro Crossing and got some funny looks with Riley on my back. We headed west to the Forgotten World heritage Routs and saw the Mount Damper Waterfall. We also visited the micronation of Whangamomana (that broke off from New Zealand when their town was missed off the map in 1989). We stayed the night in New Plymouth from which Riley and I conducted a tour of the Mt Taranaki (Mt Egmont) in the morning, visiting an overgrown Maori Pa, a shipwreck, and some great views of the peak before it was covered with cloud. Later in the day we hiked down a beach to see the three sisters and just got back before the tide cut us off. On the way north, I had a quick jog around Hamilton, then we headed straight for Auckland airport. We flew out the next morning for Tokyo, Japan.
We covered a lot of ground in our three days in Tokyo and our friend Harris took us to a party every night. On our first day, he drove us out to Hakone for views of Mount Fuji and
hot springs. We also had a nature walk at Lake Ashiro. The next day, Riley and I woke early and went to see the fish market (but it didn’t open to the public until 9am) so we caught the subway to the Ginza district and started walking in the rain. We went through Hibiya Park towards the Imperial Palace, then continued to Tokyo station, before going back to the Tsukiji Fish Market. I had to hide the stroller behind some bushes so that I could take Riley in on my shoulders. The market was packed with tiny restaurants and shops on small alleys. I thought we were an hour late getting back to meet Harris and Ann but they had only just woken up so it was no big deal. We took a monorail over the Japan 2020 Olympic site, visited Shibya crossing and found the hidden alleys of Shinjuku Golden Gai where the mini-restaurants come alive in the late hour.
On our final day, we went to see the Zojoji temple that was used in The Wolverine movie. We walked past the Tokyo Tower and got don buri lunch. We had to pack up and head to Tokyo
Station for a bus to Narita Airport. We could see the sun setting and Mount Fuji in the distance. It was till along flight home to Vancouver but a fantastic three month journey that is unlikely to be repeated in the near future.
Cheers, Richard, Ann and Riley
P.S. I will be including a full summary of our minor 2015 trips with our Costa Rica journal entry coming soon!
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