New Zealand - the hobbit chasing edition

Previously, Ness and I enjoyed Kat's hospitality as she showed us the sights of Auckland (and further afield).

After our four days in Auckland, we packed up our stuff and headed out to pick up our travelling companion for the next week - a teeny tiny Hyundai Getz. The hire car company had promised that it came with maps, so we didn't bother to book a GPS. The maps turned out to be either insanely localised OR the whole of the North Island on one A4 page, so it was a good thing that I'd looked up specific directions in Google Maps before we left Kat's wifi.

A little hesitantly, we hit the road and headed south. Luckily, New Zealand is not like Australia and they actually number their freeways and the associated exits. WHEEEEEEEE. That made navigating a lot easier. We hit a little rain on the way down, but luckily it stopped before we reached our destination or had to do any SERIOUS navigating because while getting to Matamata was entirely straightforward, there was an almost entire lack of brown tourist signs from there, which led us to drive about 10km down a windy country road almost entirely convinced that we were going the wrong way. And then, about 200m before the driveway, there was a sign. HOW HELPFUL.

Still, we reached our destination with sufficient time left over to have a wee spot of lunch. Appropriate, really, considering where we were. Our destination?

Not gonna lie, I haven't fangirled that hard since I went to Wizarding World of Harry Potter this time last year.

I think I was one of the few people on our tour who was actually fangirling though - most of the other people on our tour seemed to be of the "when in New Zealand..." approach to things. Or they were hiding their excitement a lot better than I was...

The first thing we saw was the narrow passageway where Frodo jumps onto Gandalf's cart at the start of Fellowship of the Ring. Which, coincidentally, is the same one that Bilbo runs through yelling out that he's going on an adventure in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey:

That led us into a cluster of small sized hobbit holes. They have small ones and big ones, you see, so that they can film both sets of shots.

Each one is completely individual. The attention to detail is astonishing, and the gardens are beautifully maintained.

Across the village green and up a small rise, we came to the larger sized hobbit holes, and a view across Hobbiton as a whole:

At the top of the hill, there were hobbit holes of each size where we could go right up to the front doors. Obviously, I took advantage of the situation for photos:

At the top of the hill was the biggest and most fabulous hobbit hole of all. And, for some bizarre reason, I was the only person on the tour (or at least the only one on the tour who would admit it) who knew who lived in this particular hobbit hole. Because, you know, it's SO TRICKY:

Bag End is the only hobbit hole that actually has an interior, purely because they had to have shots where either Bilbo or Frodo was standing in the doorway and you could see down the passage behind them.

Down the other side of the hill, we came to this fabulous signpost:

And then to the field where Bilbo's 111th birthday party is held, which gives a great view back to Bag End, and the massive tree on top of it. Said tree, you'll be interested to know, is entirely fake. The leaves were individually spray painted and wired on by a team of university students, and when Peter Jackson decided the colour wasn't quite right, they had to go back and spray paint them all again. Good grief. (Still, it looks pretty amazing)

Off to one side of the party field (which was basically just a field, hence the lack of photos) was Sam's house. Usually, you'd be able to go up to the fence but the day we were there, the gardeners were doing some work (how appropriate!), so I had to make do with this instead:

And then it was off on a little walk around the lake-y pond-y thing to the Green Dragon for a well earned drink (it was surprisingly warm in the sun):

The pub was beautifully presented, and was actually built by the family who own the property, rather than the film crew. It wouldn't surprise me if they expand it to include accommodation so that you can stay at Hobbiton!

It was a completely fabulous couple of hours, and I'd recommend it in a second. It's not cheap by any means. But it's TOTALLY worth the time and money.

Next up, we head to Rotorua and all its associated stinkiness!

Hands up if you'd fangirl over a visit to Hobbiton as much as I did?

K xx

I'm going on an adventure

I know I've mentioned this on Twitter and in the comments sections on a few posts, and probably in passing a couple of times, but I realised today that I've never actually properly told you guys something pretty big. And that something is this:

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Yes, my friends. At stupid o'clock on Saturday morning, I will be heading to the airport to board a plane to the land of the long white cloud. (The stupid o'clock part is not an exaggeration - my plane is at 8.10am, so I have to be at the airport by like 6am. URGH)

I'm flying into Auckland, where Ness and I will be staying with our BFF Kat for a few days. Then we're hitting the road. We'll head down to Matamata to go here:

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Hobbiton, more precisely. BECAUSE OBVIOUSLY. Then it's on to Rotorua, which apparently smells a lot like fart, but which is full of awesome geysers and hot springs as well as places to see kiwis and keas, and learn about Maori culture.

From there, we hit the road again and head south for Tongariro National Park, home to a ton of waterfalls and rainforests and three volcanoes. One of which you may know better as Mount Doom! We plan on doing a couple of bushwalks (known in New Zealand as "tramps". LOLOLOLOLOL). Plus, we're staying in a schmantzy hotel that looks a liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiittle bit like the hotel in The Shining... O.o

A couple of days later, it's back on the road time, and we're heading across to Waitomo to check out the glow worm caves of awesomeness:

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Aaaaaaand then it's back to Auckland and the airport. Ness is heading Christchurch, and I'm heading To Wellington. Why? TO SEE KIM, OF COURSE. We have been all caps emailing about it for months. There will be museum-ing and Marvel-ing and generally having All The Fun, and it will be MAGICAL.

So there you have it. If I'm not around much over the next couple of weeks? That's why.

Wish me good weather?

K xx

Nerdtasticness

Remember this time last year when I had Must Be Thrifty, her boyfriend Cheap Geek, and our high school bestie L over for Mexipalooza? Almost a year to the day later, the four of us were together again. With an additional 80 or so people, because MUST BE THRIFTY AND CHEAP GEEK GOT MARRIED!!!!!! And it was quite possibly the most geek-tastic event I've ever had the pleasure of attending.

First of all, Cheap Geek and his family entered to The Imperial March from Star Wars. As played by MBT's nephew's bossa nova band. Awesome. Said band also provided much of the music for the evening, which included the theme from Super Mario, a selection of songs from The Lion King, the Doctor Who theme, the Futurama theme, and the cantina theme from Star Wars. In short, the music was made of solid gold win.

Also made of win? The teapot that was used to serve the tea for the semi-traditional Vietnamese tea ceremony:

The table decorations consisted of old boardgames, a variety of teapots filled with flowers, and completely hilarious books - there was a cowboy book on our table called "The Leather Slapper" and the verso listed other books from the same publisher, which included "The Two-Fisted Cowpoke", which had half the table cackling with laughter. One of the other books on our table? A guide to Chinese cookery from the early 1950s. It included this delicious sounding recipe...

Excuse you, that is acceptable as NOTHING EVER.

The food was TO DIE FOR. I honestly thought that the vast quantities of hors d'oeuvres that graced the buffet with their presence over the course of an hour or so were dinner. But no. They were just the entree. And were followed by a main course, cheese plates, dessert, and wedding croquembouche. Complete with Lego MBT and Cheap Geek on top, because OBVIOUSLY.

In keeping with the "normal weddings are boring" theme, the bride and groom had a first lawn bowl (the wedding AND the reception were at a bowls club) instead of a first dance, and instead of tossing the bouquet, we played bouquet bingo, complete with wedding related bingo calls!

It was definitely the most relaxed wedding I've ever been to - the bride was mingling with guests when I arrived - and also one of the most enjoyable. It may not have fitted what a lot of people think a wedding should be, but pff. It was awesome, and it totally fitted Must Be Thrifty and Cheap Geek!!

Congratulations, guys. Hope you're having a spectacular honeymoon.

K xx

Things I Like Thursday, Volume 6

Seen random stuff on the internet that you find hilarious or just want to share? Head over to Gina's to link up!

So I've decided that I'm going to keep posting these on Thursday nights, even though there's a 99% chance that Gina won't have posted hers before I do now that she's moved back to Arizona. Because posting "Things I Like Thursday" on Fridays makes my slightly OCD brain feel all hinky. So if you see this, then write a post of your own and head to Gina's blog to link up, only to find there's no post to link up with yet? Don't be surprised.

ANYWAY. First up this week, we have this: The ten cruellest things Joss Whedon has done to his characters. I wouldn't recommend reading it if you've not seen 99% of Whedon's stuff, because it's crazy spoilery. But it makes you realise just how much he loves torturing the characters he creates! 

Next up, we have this. It's literally what it says. Just when you think it can't possibly keep going any more, IT DOES. It's pretty ridiculous.

Next, there's this article about celebrities who became famous through being total fanboys/girls. Not surprisingly, my beloved David Tennant makes the list.

You smug but utterly adorable git.

I also very much enjoyed this article called "I'm not a miserable bitch, really: I'm just an introvert". It sums up fairly perfectly my feelings on going to parties and making small talk (except that I would never go to a nightclub, because TOO MUCH NOISE AND TOO MANY PEOPLE AND GET ME OUT).

And finally, we have quite possibly the most ridiculous thing I have EVER found on Youtube. If anyone can explain this insanity to me, please - pretty please - feel free! 

Oh, 1980s. You continue to make absolutely no sense. (Also, I'm sorry about your retinas. I really am.)

Found something online this week that you desperately need to share? Head over to Gina's and link up!

K xx

30 Days of Photography - Day 17

I picked up my shiny new replacement camera on Wednesday (wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!! Although I still don't have my 50mm prime lens because they've had to order it in - SAD FACE FOREVER), and can therefore FINALLY start up this series again! Hopefully now I'll get it finished, rather than leaving things hanging as they've been for the past however many months...

Anyway, the theme for day 17 is "technology". To be honest, I had no idea what to do for this. I mean, photos of mobile phones or modems or laptops aren't particularly exciting. So I figured I'd use this as an opportunity to show you what I spend chunks of my time doing now:

MARC coding. Fascinating, no? (For the record, this isn't actually something I coded. The records I've done are far sloppier than this, and have way less lines of data in them!)

The joys of training to become a librarian... And yes, that does make sense to me!

K xx

Canberra shenanigans, Part 2

If you missed Part 1, it's here. If you've forgotten what happened, Paulie and I drove to Canberra. We stopped at ridiculous sights along the way. I made a Fruit Tingles cake, which was universally declared to be awesome, and then I made a Firefly reference about a cloud and everyone thought I was crazy.

Oh, and this is what I made Matt for his birthday. I meant to include this picture last time and forgot:

Punny, no?

Anyway, on the Sunday, we pottered about the place doing dishes and generally cleaning up from the party  while Paulie went mountain biking at Mount Stromlo because he's much more of a morning person than the rest of us are.

In the afternoon, we went to the Handwritten exhibition at the National Library. Drop what you're doing this minute, go to Canberra, and SEE THAT EXHIBITION. Because it's awesome. You don't get many chances to see documents written by Einstein, Machiavelli, Galileo, Dickens, Darwin and Florence Nightingale all in the one place. Not to mention handwritten scores by Mozart, Beethoven, Bach and Haydn!  It was pretty crowded, but we still got to see every single object up close and personal. Sample conversations?

Me: OMG, SCHLIEMANN!!!
Matt: I KNOW, SO EXCITING!!
Paulie: Who the hell is Schliemann?
Me and Matt: He discovered Troy!
(#archaeologynerds)

Paulie: Wouldn't it be nice if you could actually READ these things?
Me: [stares at Dickens' letter] "My Dear Mrs Cattermole, I have just received your three notes together. I answer them very briefly for I am only in town to day..."
Paulie: Show off.

Indeed. (In case you're curious, they have full transcriptions available online. I didn't actually memorise the letter from Charles Dickens!)

After the exhibition, we took a wee jaunt up Mount Ainslie, but ran away very quickly before the quite obvious storm decided to break:

And then we went out for Turkish food. I got so excited about the zucchini puffs (kabak mucver) that I did a happy dance in my chair and everyone thought I was crazy. You know, just for a change... But what can I say? I loves me some zucchini puffs!

Monday proved to be quite exciting, starting with inadvertently locking the car keys in the house. Luckily, it turned out that we hadn't locked the door properly, so it was more of a hypothetical panic than a real panic. We headed to the museum, where Paulie looked around and I hung out with some of my ex-work besties and caught up on six months worth of gossip, before doing a quick run around the gallery saying hello to all my objects. And cleaning showcases with my shirt, because apparently I'm incapable of not doing that...

After a bite of lunch, we headed to Parliament House where I neglected to take any photos because I was feeling lazy. It looked much the same as it always does, unsurprisingly! From there, we headed over to the War Memorial. It was slightly rushed because we were trying to cram the whole place into about an hour and a half. But I think we made it through everything that Paulie wanted to see, along with the added bonus of being there for the closing ceremony.

Bugler playing The Last Post at the Memorial closing ceremony

Then came the super exciting part of the day. We headed over to Tongue & Groove to meet up with Vanisha and Louise. And it was so lovely to finally meet them both! I mean, how can you go wrong with bloggy friends, cider and $5 tapas?? ALL AROUND WIN. (And if you go to Tongue & Groove, I highly recommend the southwest chicken tapas! Also, the pizookies are AMAZEBALLS, from past experience)

From there, we headed to the supermarket to get some stuff for dinner. And it wasn't until we were going through the self serve checkout that I remembered that plastic bags are now banned in the ACT. So we got to walk through the Canberra Centre juggling the following because they don't sell the reusable bags at the self serve checkouts:

• 2 bags of rigatoni
• A large red capsicum
• A bag of baby spinach
• Half a butternut pumpkin
• A packet of chicken
• A punnet of cherry tomatoes
• A jar of basil pesto
• A bag of romano cheese
• A tub of Belgian chocolate ice cream
• A bunch of asparagus

And I was in three inch heels, and had to walk down a non-moving travellator. Fun times all round! O.o 

The next morning, we threw all the stuff back in the car and bid farewell to Canberra. One of the cats decided that my bag looked interesting and tried to come with us:

Oh, hai... I can haz trip to Melbourne?

The drive back wasn't particularly exciting - I mean, we'd seen all the spectacular sights on the way up!! - other than that the bag of jelly snakes we'd brought with us had melted into a giant blob in the back of the car, and I had to rip it into chunks before we could eat them. There was one disgustingly memorable moment in which we got stuck behind a truck carrying some kind of sewage. Paulie thought I'd farted (uh, thanks??) and not said anything. I thought there was a massively stinky dead kangaroo somewhere nearby, and that it was coming through the air conditioning system. But no. Sewage truck of chokingly awful stenches. 

And that about sums things up, really. What more could you want from a long weekend than good friends, good cider, delicious cake, awesome historical documents and entertaining stories to tell?!

K xx

Canberra shenanigans, Part 1

At 9.15 on Friday morning, Paulie and I loaded up his car and set off for Canberra. I was slightly apprehensive about it, as Paulie has a...somewhat limited?...attention span at times, and I once told him that I'd never EVER set foot on a plane with him. Which of course he reminded me of as we headed for the Hume Highway and the seven hour drive to the ACT...

But with the help of Kenny Loggins' Danger Zone and a number of stops, we managed to avoid killing each other. We saw all FOUR of the sights the Hume has to offer between Melbourne and Canberra:

1. The chicken tree just past the exit to Clonbinane:

2. The giant-ish fibreglass Ned Kelly statue at Glenrowan:

3. The HMAS Otway in Holbrook (which is at least 2 hours drive from the ocean):

4. The Dog on the Tuckerbox outside Gundagai:

Holbrook is also home to three of my favourite things about the drive from Melbourne to Canberra.
1. The Holbrook Bakery, which features many tasty noms.
2. This sign:

3. A clothing shop with the following range:

Basically? You need to stop in Holbrook, because it's AWESOME.

We also had a few little incidents with Sparkles, the GPS. Sure, you don't really need a GPS to get from Melbourne to Canberra (get on the Hume, drive straight for 600 kilometres, turn off at the Barton Highway), but it was fun to watch Sparkles have little "WHAT ARE YOU DOING???? YOU'RE DRIVING IN A PADDOCK AT 110 KPH!!!" panic attacks when her software didn't know that the Tarcutta bypass had been opened.

The trip itself was fairly uneventful, with the exception of hitting an ENORMOUS locust, which created a delightful splatter of lumpy bug guts half way up the windscreen, and which felt the need to hang out on the windscreen wiper for a little while so we could appreciate what it had once been. We then spent the next hour of the drive marvelling at how disgusting its remnants were. I'll spare you the photos.

As we came down the Barton Highway, it started to pour with rain. And just outside Murrumbateman (spell check options for Murrumbateman? Guatemalan, masturbation and Northumberland. WHAT.), the rain reached a level of ridiculous where we couldn't even see the road any more.

And of course, that was right about the point where some moron decided he needed to overtake us. Fun times!

Thankfully, we made it into Canberra and to Em and Matt's without any dramas. Although I suspect if Sparkles had said "Continue straight through the roundabout" one more time, she would have been thrown out the window!

I spent Saturday morning making an epic mess Fruit Tingles icing for Matt's birthday cake. But it was so very VERY worth it:

(If you want to make your own Fruit Tingles cake, the recipe is here) The cake disappeared in about five minutes flat after the obligatory Happy Birthdays had been sung, so I guess everyone thought it was pretty good! (Let's just ignore the fact that half the population of Canberra will now develop diabetes thanks to my cake...)

As people were leaving the party that night, a bunch of us ended up standing outside watching a cloud in the distance. There was no rain from it, and you couldn't hear any thunder. But there was CONSTANT lightning, which was very cool indeed. And so of course, this happened:
Guest 1: Wow, look at all the lightning in that cloud!
Guest 2: That's pretty impressive.
Me: I know, right?! It reminds me of that scene in Serenity when the Reaver ships appear out of the ion cloud.
*crickets chirping*
Me: Crap. That was too nerdy, wasn't it?
Guest 1: I've seen Star Wars, does that help?

Look out for my book, How To Avoid Making Friends Through Nerdy Comments, soon to be available in all good bookstores! (Okay, not really. But I'm definitely a subject matter expert on that topic...)

Part 2 of the Canberra trip coming soon. If I tried to cram it all into one post, you'd all die of Kirstiisreallylongwindeditis! And we can't have THAT, now can we?

How was everyone else's weekend? (Also, please tell me that SOMEONE knows what I'm talking about with the whole Reavers/ion cloud thing??)

K xx

Movie Monday: The Two Towers

As I said last week, it's getting all LOTR-y up in here for Movie Mondays! As we all know, Fellowship of the Ring isn't really the most exciting movie of all time. I mean, it's basically just introducing you to Middle Earth and all the characters, and then Boromir turns out to be a bit of a knob but a knob who redeems himself in the end. Or something.

ANYWAY. Fellowship was last week. Let's push on to The Two Towers, which is a FAR more exciting film. (Warning: This is going to get long. And nerdy. But mostly long.)

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Reasons why The Two Towers is awesome:
1. Andy Serkis. Yes, I know I listed that as a reason why FOTR was awesome. But Gollum is actually in The Two Towers for more than 30 seconds, so I'm including it.
2. The music. Again.
3. The scenery. Again.
4. Legolas staring pointedly into the distance on a regular basis and stating the obvious. Again. It's still inadvertently hilarious.
5. Eowyn. She's seriously awesome.
6. Pippin's face when Treebeard opens his eyes.

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7. Frodo's faceplant into the swamp. I can't help but find it enormously amusing.
8. Aragorn kicking the helmet when he thinks Merry and Pippin are dead. Apparently Viggo Mortensen broke a toe doing that.
9. Starting the movie with Gandalf's "YOU. SHALL NOT. PASS!!" line (which was by far the most epic part of FOTR) and the fight with the Balrog.
10. Gandalf's return.

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11. Sam falling off the cliff by the Black Gate and Frodo making the two of them look like a rock.
12. Smeagol trying to catch fish.
13. Gandalf forcing Saruman out of Theodin.
14. How the One Ring is basically Slytherin's locket, and Frodo is basically Ron.
15. The scene where Gollum and Smeagol are talking to each other. Creepy, but completely brilliant.
16. Gandalf riding out of the stables at Edoras.
17. Oliphaunts.

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18. David Wenham as Faramir. Even though in my head, he's still Diver Dan from Seachange.
19. Legolas shooting warg riders.
20. Wormtongue's face when he sees Saruman's orc army.

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21. Aragorn basically getting kissed by a horse.
22. Smeagol singing to himself.
23. The meeting of the Ents.
24. The arming of the boys and old men at Helm's Deep. Heartbreaking.
25. Gandalf's arrival at Helm's Deep with Eomer and his Rohirrim.

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26. Gimli's chainmail dress. Snort.
27. Merry's expectant face when Treebeard says the Ents have reached a decision.
28. Legolas sliding down the stairs on a shield. Pretty much my favourite thing in the entire trilogy.

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29. Aragorn riding a seige ladder down into the orc army.
30. The Ents killing orcs at Isengard by standing on them. GENIUS!
31. The Nazgul's fellbeasts.

Plus, the following quotes:
- "This is Sting. You've seen it before, haven't you...Gollum."
- "Not idly do the leaves of Lorien fall." "They may yet be alive!"
- "I'm wasted on cross country. We dwarves are natural sprinters!"
- "It will begin...in Rohan."
- "Keep breathing. That's the key. Just breathe!" (<-- Oh, Gimli. I feel your pain when it comes to running.)
- "A hobbit lay here. And the other!"
- "Tree?! I am no tree. I am an Ent."
- "There are dead things. Dead faces in the water!"
- "I am Gandalf the White. And I come back to you now at the turn of the tide."
- "Late is the hour in which this conjurer chooses to appear."
- "Dark have been my dreams of late." "Your fingers would remember their old strength better if they grasped your sword."
- "Look to my coming at first light on the fifth day. At dawn, look to the east."
- "Sneaky little hobbitses."
- "Master is our friend!" You don't HAVE any friends. Nobody likes YOU."
- "It's true, you don't see many dwarf women. And in fact, they are so alike in voice and appearance [chuckles] that they are often mistaken for dwarf MEN!" "[whispers] It's the beards!"
- "That one counts as mine!"
- "Stupid, fat hobbit!"
- "You could have picked a better spot!"
- "What's happening out there?" "Shall I describe it to you? Or would you like me to find you a box?"
- "Legolas! I'm on two already!" "I'm on seventeen..."
- "Toss me!" "What?" "I cannot jump the distance, you'll have to toss me...Don't tell the elf?" "Not a word."
- "I always like going south. Somehow, it feels like going downhill."
- "What can men do against such reckless hate?"
- "The battle for Helm's Deep is over. The battle for Middle Earth is about to begin."
And quite possibly my all-time favourite LOTR quote:
- "What we need is a few good taters." "What's taters, precious? What's taters, eh?" "PO-TAY-TOES! Boil 'em, mash 'em, stick 'em in a stew... Lovely big golden chips with a nice piece of fried fish. [Gollum makes a noise of disgust while sticking his tongue out] Even you couldn't say no to that." "Oh yes we could. Spoilin' nice fish. Give it to us raw and w-r-r-riggling; you keep nasty chips." "You're hopeless."

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Also, Happy Waitangi Day, New Zealand. Thanks for existing so that LOTR could be filmed and I could get my nerd on! <3

K xx