Super Ringer Frodo’s girl checks in after her first day in NZ where she’s joined a tour that will take her to LOTR film locations.
“I thought I would share with TheOneRing.net my experience on the Red Carpet Movie Tour’s LOTR “Ultimate Fantasy” 12-day tour. I’m on a small VIP tour. I’ll send in updates as time and connectivity permit.
“I’ll start with day one of my trip – which is actually more like day one, two and three. For those of you that don’t know, getting to New Zealand is a bit of a long haul. Most flights from the states start with flying from where ever you live to L.A., and then taking off from L.A. around 10 or 11pm and flying for 12 or 13 hours to Auckland. Besides the length of the trip you cross the international date line, so you take off on one day and end up landing in Auckland in the morning two days later. From Europe the trip is even longer, requiring a long flight to L.A. or Singapore, and then another to Auckland.
“Feb 16th & 18th
I used to travel internationally quite a bit for business and I had already made a similar flight, that time to Melbourne, so I was more or less prepared for the extensive journey. This time, however, I was going to find Middle-earth. I was headed on a trip to find my heart and soul. A heart and soul that I had left somewhere between the Shire and Rivendell in my younger years at a time in my life when I understood how the magic of the heart works, and knew that friendship and determination can get you through anything.
“I took off from Seattle on the afternoon of Feb 16th and headed down to LAX. Since it is summer in this part of the world, flights are very full and ours was overbooked. However, the flight was smooth and fairly uneventful. I did have the added bonus that one of the movies they showed was bandits, so I got my Cate Blanchett fix (is she amazing or what?). I saw a beautiful sunrise near the end of the flight.
“Vic James of Red Carpet Movie Tours picked me up at the airport and dropped me off at my hotel (I have a few extra days here on either end of the tour). I decided to take it pretty easy for the rest of the day. Tomorrow, Vic will pick me up bright and early at 8am and we will head to Matamata – site of Hobbiton.”
