A Journey Into Middle Earth...Then a Visit to Seattle

That's right, have a sword. Be jealous.

And not just any sword - actually, a sword wielded by Aragorn (aka Viggo Mortensen)in the Lord of the Rings Trilogy. Our Lord of the Rings tour on Sunday was fantastic on so many different levels. Amazing scenery, good group of people (all young people, and no extreme know-it-all nerds), and a very knowledgable guide (the guy had worked on the movies as the lead on-location sound guy, had won two Oscars and been nominated four times, and he doesn't even mention this until he was driving us back). If the location looks familiar at all, it was the site of Edoras, the capital of Rohan that first shows up in the second movie. Absolutely stunning spot, and I'm sure I'll never be able to watch the movies again without getting super excited whenever Edoras comes onto the screen.

The tour was an awesome way to end our time in New Zealand, but we are on to one last final adventure in Sydney. The flight fortunately went quite smoothly and we re-entered Australia with no problems at all.

I'm able to post and load pictures because I finally have reliable, free, non-time restricted internet couresy of an awesome arrangement we have courtesy of Morgan. We are staying two nights (this is the second) with family friends of hers that have a house in Wollongong, a lovely city about an hour and a half south of Sydney. They were kind enough to pick us up at the airport and treat us to some lovely sightseeing on the way down to Wollongong yesterday. Today we spent happily warm and relaxed on the beach that's only bout a 15 minute walk from their house:


That's right. Check out where I was today. Now look out your window. Mom, dad, I might just decide I'm going to accidentally miss the flight home.

The couple we're staying with - Shady and Scott - also have a lovely 13-month-old aptly named Seattle whose antics we've been thoroughly enjoying (apart from his almost-incessant crying on the ride from the airport; the kid does not like being confined). So yes, after a sense, I have been able to visit Seattle a week early.

This may be my last blog post from Australia itself, I will be back in Seattle, no puns attached, in less than a week. Here's to making the most of the next few days!