well-met by moonlight

at last and against at all expectations...

hippolyta had arrived! 

but––– chaperoned by my loquacious cousin, buttons hippo!!

i'm not sure, greece has turned out to be quite what h expected; the rustic retsina clearly wasn't in the same league as the buck's fizz she was, apparently, expecting as an evening aperitif, but she managed to hide any disappointment with her usual charm and grace.

Later, while buttons hippo bored the assembled company at artistico taverna with a minute-by-minute account of their travels (with added anedotes about his early life on the banks of the limpopo), h and I slipped away for a téte á téte and a chance to share the beauty of the almost-full moon rising above the mountains of kalymnos...

i invited h to stay on for a sleep-over, but she is still rather fatigued by the journey, so retired to her beach house (which she is rather grudgingly sharing with roger and sheila) leaving buttons hippo to stay instead and expand on the qualitative differences of life by the aforementioned limpopo in comparison with reported accounts of attractions enjoyed by hippos visiting the shalimar. it's almost four in the morning and he's still talking!

never mind, two weeks with h is a wonderful (if challenging) prospect!

 

holiday blues

last night in the artistico taverna, brian sang that song about the hippopotamus that goes 'mud, mud, glorious mud...'; it is really very silly, but, of course, it set my mind turning to thoughts of hippolyta...

i am counting the days to her arrival and hoping that – unlike other years – there won't be any last minute glitches...

a rabbit in middle-earth

in case those hobbity actors decide they aren't going to help that nice mr jackson make his third hobbit film, i should like him to know i am more than ready and willing to help out.

you see, i know all about the lord of the rings – not just because i happen to live with a fellow who is a bit of whiz with these books and so i've had to listen to a lot of yak about them – but also because while brian was in new zealand last year interviewing the cast and the movie-makers, i was gadding about visiting quite a few of the movie locations...

The very nice jack machiela (who is, without question the most experienced guide in middle-earth) took me to all the places around wellington that were featured in famous scenes from the trilogy...

knowing that some of my readers might not actually believe in my adventures without proof, jack kindly took lots of photos.

this is jack meeting me at my hotel... 

so, we set off...

and stop where frodo and sam had their picnic ...

and where the hobbits were chased by the nasty black riders and had to 'get off the road'...

i always thought rivendell was quite hard to find... i guess gandalf must have missed this sign post... 

 

this is legolas' tree but there wasn't any sign of orlando who was probably busy chahtting to brian at the time...

here i am at isengard with a staff like gandalf and saruman – i kept hoping sir ian or sir christopher would come along...

 

on next to the banks of the river anduin – who shall i go with? frodo and sam? or aragorn, legolas and gimli? decisions, decisions...

 

next location – lunch!

aragorn's horse, brego (that's his nose top right of picture), rescues me when i am washed up half-drowned...

off now to visit weta cave at the studio where all those amazing monsters and creatures were born...

i'd no idea that some of those characters were quite so small...

or that others were quite so bi!

 

(not absolutely sure how this photo got in here –– or how i got in there!)

anyway there are others that are really horrid...

there were times when i could have done with one of these guns – i think they must have cut the orc gun squad out of the lord of the rings, but maybe they'll make it into the hobbit...

i also got to play my own version of where's wally? Can you spot me?

i had a really great day out, so many thanks, jack!

if you'd like to the lord of the rings tour, this is the place to start!