Not to be overly dramatic but I have given up. I am finished. Throwing in the towel, calling it quits, raising my hands to the sky and surrendering. The elements and complicated plots twists have combined forces to conquer me.

Yes, officially, I have accepted the inevitable and I am now facing the cold hard truth: I am a travel blogger.

I am here in New Zealand, Matamata as matter of fact and the sun is up and birds are singing and the weather is beautiful. I am in a lovely little accommodation called the Broadway Motel in a town that fancies itself as Hobbiton. I have been in New Zealand just shy of a week and I have written a fair bit about Queenstown and some of the amazing places and people there. But since my stay there I have been traveling — a lot.

Today in about 30 minutes or so, Ian Brodie is going to come pick me up in his Land Rover and take me to the set. Lots of people have visited the set, something like 200,000 people in a country of four million, and so that doesn’t make me unique in any way. Many reading these words have walked the ground there. Brodie of course is the author of the Lord of the Rings Location Guidebook which is stunningly popular. In that same relatively small nation, around half a million of his books have sold which makes it the third most popular book in this country’s history.

He is also a hell heck of a of a photographer and from our meeting yesterday a really nice guy. But the point is, he and I are heading to the movie set where filming for The Hobbit has just finished and the condition of the place is pristine. The challenge of even coming here with two weeks total in NZ: nobody is allowed to bring cameras.

Turns out almost nobody is allowed to bring cameras but today, TheOneRing.net is allowed. I don’t want to assume anything, but if I have my story strait, this is going to be an exclusive that I feel pretty fortunate to have, but I digress.

So what I have actually given up is the idea that I can turn in journalistic-style news reports here for TORn. All that traveling I have been doing? Well, it takes time and since I am alone it takes my full attention to drive. I just can’t seem to manage being on the “wrong” side of the road and type at the same time and here I am nearly a week into my trip and well, I just can’t produce this content fast enough.

Further, one of my “bosses” and good friend Calisuri has branded TORn with a banner that more or less demands I crank out the content. I hoped – really, really hoped – that I could write about this whole New Zealand affair and not make it overly personal. This trip isn’t about me and I hoped the content wouldn’t be about me but all that driving and flying and boating (I need to manage a train to complete the circle and the classic film title) has left me with too little time, too little content and actually, nobody to talk to or interview but myself.

I don’t want to burden readers with “It was so cool! I got to see blabbity, blibbity and then blubbity blub happened too,” but TORn deserves more content and the trip deserves more content and there just isn’t a way to make this happen in the already short and very busy time I have left. And that banner saying “MrCere goes to New Zeland Middle-earth demands it as well

So, I give up. I am a travel blogger. TheOneRing.net is my temporary blog. These are my adventures for better or for worse.

That isn’t to say I am giving up the other approach completely. Brodie and will have an interview today. He was on my wish list for the trip actually but he was way up here and I was way down there and how we ended up together is another story, but we shall have an interview.

The incomparable Richard Taylor is on the schedule as well and TORn’s very own Erica Challis / Tehanu and those will get my full attention but, I am going to do my best to crank out content.

Well, Brodie just arrived and this new format allowed me to get something posted that fast. It is working already but I just pounded that out on my keyboard and I fear the mistakes but hey, post now and fix later is what travel bloggers do isn’t it?