In addition to critters, trams, and work, I had a few other random adventures while visiting Australia and New Zealand last month that were noteworthy.

I’d been to Sydney before, and since I’d already done a lot of the Australian animal things and needed something to do on an evening, I signed up for a dinner cruise around Sydney Harbour. I joked about taking myself out on a romantic cruise, but in all honesty I didn’t feel weird about it. I’m a pro at solo dining, and extending that to a dinner cruise when I have an evening free? Sure! It was a sunset cruise, so I got to enjoy some pretty spectacular views that allowed me to see the key sights during sunset and at night.

I expect Sydney Harbour is one of those places like the San Francisco Bay, as many times as you visit (or live there!), it never stops being spectacular.

I will say the food was fine, but not the thing you’d go on one of these cruises for. I was also grateful for the wait staff who took my drink order at the table rather than through the app, which I was quite disinclined to use my limited international phone data for.

The afternoon after the Sydney tram museum, I visited my colleague at his home where I met his girlfriend and had some lovely tea and snacks, while we enjoyed their spectacular downtown view. I also got a nice chunk of my gift shopping done there in downtown Sydney. My first stop was the Lego [certified] Store, purportedly the World’s Largest Lego Store where they had some fun Australia-specific displays, including a couple koalas and a tree with some Australian birds, a chunk of Sydney Harbour Bridge, a Sydney ferry you could sit inside, and Lego wall art featuring the Sydney Opera House. Aside from that, it was a Lego store. They did have some cute reusable canvas bags of which I picked up a couple of, but otherwise I just got a couple little kits for the boys.

One of the little Lego kits I got was a Bluey kit, because I was in the land of Bluey! Well, sort of, my colleagues kept reminding me that Bluey lives in Brisbane, and our journey across the country didn’t take us there. Still, Australia is Bluey land, and there was a lot of Bluey merchandise. It’s definitely creeping up here in the US here, but it was still fun to pick up Bluey Monopoly Junior, a Unicorse hand puppet, and some Bluey character blocks.

From Sydney it was off to Wellington, New Zealand. I’d never been to New Zealand before, so it was particularly exciting for me. And you know what’s great about New Zealand? It’s where they filmed The Lord of the Rings! My father was a huge LoTR fan, with posters and calendars and records. I’m pretty sure he even went to a festival or two in the 1970s. I grew up listening to The Hobbit on the record player, and it was one of the first books I read once I was able to tackle books that long. In some families, religious stories are what fills the soul. In ours, it was LoTR lore.

Now, not only were the films made in New Zealand, Weta Workshop, a home-grown New Zealand company, did a ton of the work to make the movies come alive with hundreds of thousands of props, masks (and ears, feet…), and other accessories across the trilogy, and then into the Hobbit movies too. The movies were beautiful and gritty and real, and as a series that I grew up on and have poured so much love into, I was grateful that the movies have proven their worth, and that’s thanks to Weta Workshop. Because my stay in Wellington was rather short to stick to a tight work-focused schedule, I didn’t have the luxury of a long side-quest, but Weta Workshop Experience was close and I definitely had time for a tour there! I took a bus out around noon to have lunch nearby, and was able to make it in plenty of time for my 2PM tour, and to look around a little bit and make plans for what I’d pick up at the gift shop.

The tour takes place in a series of rooms, most of which you can’t take photos in (aww). It was a lot of fun, but I will say that it’s probably required that you be into movies, especially ones they’ve worked on, or it might be a rather boring tour. For me, it was exciting to hold some prop swords and mithril armor, see the different size weapons and armor they used for different characters to help with scale. You see, hobbits and dwarves are small, and humans, elves, and wizards are big! But the actors are actually all humans ;)

And the goal of the tour is to get folks interested in making and building and creating, and I think they do a really nice job of that. Over here, I’ve got plenty of all of that, and still I was very interested when they showed off the work of sculptures who work in aluminum foil and cardboard and then coat their figures in Pal Tiya Premium – no special equipment needed! But I don’t need another hobby, so into the idea box it goes.

At the end of the tour you have an opportunity to get some fun photos taken. I partook, because I have outgrown the type of embarrassment that most people have when brandishing a prop sword alone in front of strangers. It ended up being a really fun photo once the background was applied.

After the tour, I raided the gift shop, which was a delight.

And then I met up with Brenda Wallace! We’ve known each other for a couple decades now via LinuxChix, and we’ve met at at least one linux.conf.au. But our paths mostly just cross on social media now, so it was wonderful to get together for a couple beers at Parrotdog Brewery & Bar, which I was delighted to see was very family and dog friendly. Hooray! It was really nice to catch up and see a familiar face, and see how far our life journeys have taken us since we first met.

My final day in Wellington I didn’t need to leave town until midday, so I spent the morning at Te Papa Tongarewa (Museum of New Zealand). I was inspired to go because Weta Workshop worked on the Gallipoli: The Scale of Our War exhibition which everyone said was spectacular. So off I went! The Gallipoli exhibit was definitely breathtaking, and worth seeing in person even if you have little interest in the war. The figures created by Weta are larger than life (2.4x scale), and completely realistic, and given how emotional and often gruesome what they depict is, they leave an unforgettable impression that photos don’t begin to do justice to.

I also stopped by the only fully intact colossal squid specimen on public display in a museum. It was very… colossal. And a bit gross. And also very cool to see in person.

It was a beautiful museum and I’m glad I was drawn in to see the exhibits. I learned a lot more about New Zealand history than I expected to, and it was fascinating.

And with that, it was time to meet my colleague Adam back at our hotel to catch a ride to the airport! He concluded his journey in Sydney, my first stop, while I ventured onward for my 14 hour flight back to San Francisco.

In all, an amazing trip and I’m so grateful I had the opportunity and was able to squeeze in so many adventures.