Day 44 - 11/15/22 - Wellington, NZ - Day 2

 Today we went on a Tours By Locals Lord of the Rings 1/2 day tour which was organized by Penny.  We joined her and her husband Tom, for a guided tour with Robbie who it turned out was an extra in the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit movies as well as a number of others over the years.  


First we visited Mt. Victoria with its commanding views of the harbor and the surrounding area.  He then took us to an area where scenes from the films were filmed.  He talked extensively about the process and showed us specific film locations as identified by the trees.  All buildings or other structures were removed after filming completed, so the area is completely natural except for a few sign notations that filming occurred here.  We then went to the Wētā Cave facility where much of the creative costume, and characters were created.  We toured there and it was super interesting even though I've never seen a Lord of the Rings movies or read any of the books.  There was all sorts of weaponry, characters, and other items on display which exemplified their creative abilities.  It was amazing to learn all of the films that they have done behind the scenes work for.  A second part of the tour featured the set for a wildly popular mid 1960's UK, Australia, and NZ TV series called Thunderbirds which was a SCI-FI electronic animated puppetry about a group of people who do rescue missions.  It really never caught on in the USA, but there were people on our tour who rabidly watched it.  





After the tours were over, we enjoyed a nice lunch at the Scorch-O-Rama Cafe at the Scorching Beach which is named for the hot beach temperatures during the summer..  This cafe specializes in egg dishes but we enjoyed sharing a fish stew while Penny and Tom enjoyed giant plates of nachos and shredded pork.  I forgot to take pictures of the items, but they were huge.


Robbie drove us back to the port where we re-boarded the ship.  We departed around 4:50pm with 3 long toots of the ship's horn and made our way out of the Wellington Harbor.  In his departure message, the Captain indicated that we now have 4 more Covid cases which brings our total to 15.  No breakdown was given between passengers and crew.  But indoor masking is still emphasized and crew have resumed manning the hand sanitizer stations to encourage use of those machines.


Baby back ribs were once again on the menu and they were terrific!  We ate with Eric and Marilyn inside and shared about our day's happenings.


There continues to be a noticeable shortage of waitstaff crew serving in the LIDO dining area.  The wait staff that are there are doing their best.  There simply are not enough of them with this sold out voyage.  We went twenty minutes without having a server stop by our table.  We eventually went and got our own water.


Tonight's entertainment was Cesare G. Quintero who is one of the Cantaré singers.  He has an operatic quality voice and did an exquisite show for us singing a wide variety of songs.


We also received an email advising us of an itinerary change for our next segment.  Our stop at Phillip Island has been dropped for "operational reasons" and an additional day has been added for Melbourne.  This works out well as it allows us to spend Saturday and Sunday with our exchange daughter and her family.  We got in touch with her after being notified of the change and have worked out a plan for the time we'll spend there after the cruise is over.


Tomorrow we'll be in Napier which is known as the Art Deco capital of the world.  We have a couple of fun activities planned. 

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