[Nz2003] Nelson -> Wellington

[Edmund A. Hintz]

    Had a lot of fun in Nelson, packed a lot into one day. Started off
with a visit to Jens Hansen jewelers, whose claim to fame is that they
designed and provided the One Ring for LOTR. They have one on display
that was used in the movies (they made about 40 of various sizes).
Naturally, I had to get one. Got the 9 carat version, which seemed
fitting, as there were nine rings for mortal men doomed to die...
Besides, it was cheap (relatively). One of our stops on North Island will
be the spot where Isildur cut the ring from the hand of Sauron; should be
fun to visit there with the ring. Maybe it'll get heavy. ;-) Speaking of
ring tricks, here's a wee bit of trivia: in the scene where Bilbo drops
the ring, it was a steel ring eight inches in diameter, and the floor was
magnetized, which is why it just dropped and stayed there-normally a ring
would bounce. The next stop was Harrington's Brewery, whose Stout was in
the mugs at the Prancing Pony in Bree as well as Bilbo's Eleventy-First
party and the other scenes containing ales. They did cut it from the
usual 5% down to 1%, as drunk actors on set would have been a bad thing.
I picked up 2 sixpacks and a pint glass to bring home, along with a 2
liter bottle of the stout for consumption here. 

    From there we caught a jetboat ride in the Estuary outside Nelson
with Mapua Jet. Good stuff, the folks are real clueful about the local
birdlife and provided some interesting commentary along with the usual
speeding about one gets with jetboats. Wrapped the day up with a group
ATV ride, about 2.5 hrs through mountain roads. Quite a bit of fun,
they're very stable and easy to drive. They've got an auto-clutch system
so gearshifts are quite simple, and the thumb actuated accelerator was
easy enough to get the hang of. I'd expected to have a bit of trouble
with it, as the left handle is a brake (rather than a clutch like a
normal bike) but it was no trouble at all. We ended up the ride at what
they called the "fun track", where we got to go crazy through mudpuddles
and such. I went through once, decided that was enough, and spent the
rest of the time pushing the limits of the track and vehicle, but Sam and
Hunter went through all the puddles and got rather soaked.

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Regards,

Ed Hintz
ed@hintz.org