Alarm went off at 4.45am! D&L immediately up & dressed & finished last bits of packing. Dragged kids sleepily out of bed, got them dressed, cleaned teeth & into the car. Got to the check in at 5.15, then sat in line, waiting to board, eating breakfast, & watching dawn break.

Very easy crossing - no swell - we mostly read with occasional forays out into the bright but windy morning. Highlight of the crossing: a pod of ~8 dusky dolphins swimming past the ferry, just before we left the Tory channel.

Sadly bade farewell to the South island, & turned our thoughts to how we were going to spend our final 2 weeks in NZ!

Ferry docked in Wellington, & we drove, with little complication, to Mirimar, to find the Weta cave. Spent nearly an hour & a half looking at the models, props, posters & watching a short film all about the studio. Had photos taken with Gollum, Lurtz & Sauron, & chatted to the staff for quite a while, which led to D being given the opportunity to hold a gold "One Ring" (only $5200), as a special treat! After a (small) amount of pontification, D was treated to an early Xmas present: the $125 silver version of The Ring!

We finally dragged ourselves away, & drove up to Mt Victoria & climbed up to the summit lookout. Fantastic 360˚ view of the city, surrounding hills & the sea … & very windy (of course!). then went for a walk in Mt Vic domain, to find a few more LotR filming locations, & eat lunch.

Left Wellington, following the SH2, and the course of the Hutt River. Stopped just passed Moonshine Bridge to find the location where shots of the fellowship in the small elven boats were filmed, & the kids found a small play park to play on for a few mins.

As everyone was starting to feel the effects of such an early start, we decided to start to look for accommodation, which (fortuitously) coincided with the next location: Harcourt Park. Compact cabin with 2x single bunks, reasonable kitchen, & $5 to hire equipment. Settled in & had a coffee, then went to explore the park, right next door. The kids found a good play park with a zip wire (flying fox) that M went on about a dozen times! After 20 mins sat watching the kids play, D "forced|" everyone to walk around the park, & we found the location of the path Gandalf & Saruman walked down whilst chatting, at Isenguard. On close inspection, a strip of different coloured grass marks where the path was built, used, dug up & reseeded!

Back at the Holiday Park, we were given a couple of carrots to feed the horse & pony, much to M's delight!

Ate tea, then back to the cabin to get an early night - a plan somewhat ruined by D smashing the light bulb, & scattering shards of glass all over the cabin! We picked up what we could, on hands & knees, by torchlight. Then D went up to the office, & was given a vacuum cleaner (& a new lightbulb!) to finish the job. Finally, got to bed at ~ ¼ to 10 for a much needed night's sleep!