Bog of Eternal Stench

When planning our trip to New Zealand, I knew that we would be rewarded with loads of reminders of the Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit, given New Zealand's pseudonym, Middle Earth. To be sure, even in our first three days here, we have had Hobbit Related experiences in abundance. For example, on our first day in New Zealand, we took a tour of the Hobbiton. Literally, we toured the actual Hobbiton where the actual LotR and Hobbit movies were filmed. The next day we took in breakfast at a lovely Shire themed cafe. Today, we climbed Mount Doom.

And so you understand, we expected to often be reminded of these classic fantasy movies while touring Middle Earth, and our expectation has been surpassed. What I did not expect was to come across regular reminders of other fantasy movies as well. On our first day, we visited the glowworm caves. This tour included the typical education about stalactites and stalagmites, but it also included a boat tour of a part of the cave festooned with glowworms. The glowworms are bioluminescent larvae which cling to ledges above water, and glow to attract meandering insects into the sticky threads they dangle below them. In order to experience the full effect f the luminescent larvae, it is important to have silence and darkness. So, we floated slowly through a cave that was pitch dark, save the eerie green glowing spots above us. As we bobbed aimlessly, I expected the creepy quiet voice of Gene Wilder as Willy Wonka to begin singing, "there's no way of knowing which way we are going..." Thankfully for us, the boat ride ended gently at a dock right at the caves entrance, rather than in a room full of Oompah Lumpahs who turn annoying children into blueberries.

Yesterday, we encountered what can only be described as both my favorite and least favorite fantasy movie reminder of the trip (so far). As many readers probably already know, I am a HUGE fan of movies created by Jim Henson and Brian Froud, including the Labyrinth. So, you can imagine I was delighted when we unexpectedly stumbled on The Bog of Eternal Stench. As you can also imagine by its name, that I was not completely delighted to have all five senses able to experience said bog. What we had come across was a highly active geothermal mud pool, with boiling water bubbling through murky clay, emitting its sulphurous gases in sometimes violent erruptions which splattered mud through the pool. Despite the odor, the visual input was mesmerizing, it was a wonderful and unexpected site to stumble upon.