The Ring goes south

26.4

That day our party grew. That day we recruited a new member in our fellowship, one that would carry us all these leagues to Mordor. Sadly he has not yet been named in any language understandable to us Hobbits. For his character: He is open for a good adventurer, reliable, a bit paranoid of being left unguarded, a bit slow in understanding our requests and general very likeable. So far our ideas of names were: Errol Took, Grawp and Heppo Brandybuck. We'll tell you our decision in the next chapter. So, our party left Christchurch on the southbound road, excited for our next adventures. But before we could leave the town we needed to stock up our provisions. For the first time since we left, so for the first time in nearly 7 month we did a weeks worth of shopping! That might not sound very exiting but we could buy 2 kg of radish (one) and 2.5 kg of cabbage without having to eat cabbage for every single meal for three days (Artey is still traumatized from our time in Bishkek, the Kyrgyz cabbages are ginormous). We also visited an Indian supermarket, great place to buy spices. So off we went, following the winding road to whatever end.

27.4

The day dawned bright and clear. We did not hasten our awakening and broke our fast inside the comfort of our new friend. It is truly remarkable that we can stand while preparing food. That day we ventured into the city of Dunedin. It is a misleading place and is very much not pronounced like the mighty rangers of the north (Dunedain). But it is a nice place. There we marveled at the architecture of buildings standing there for centuries. The city and the entire country is covered in a golden hue, as tiny goblins started to paint the leaves on the trees in different shades of red, gold and orange. We enjoyed our lunch outside on a public square, where a bard was preparing for a later performance. We left Dunedin and rode over the Peninsula of Otago, a place of seals and eagles. Unlucky farmers there report the loss of their sheep due to a hungry Antipodean Opaleye nesting on top of the Otago-Mountains. We made camp for the night on the shore of the sea. And as mandated of the king of Gondor who at least partially rules these lands we continued to watch the struggle of Frodo son of Drogo on his way to the land of Doom.

28.4

On this day the sun was already up and shining brightly as we crawled out our beds. To fight off the fear of turning into an Ogre we decided to jump under the outdoor stationary rain. Surprisingly it was less cold than expected. I feared that we would turn into ice, as it was max 12 °C outside and the stationary rain did not posses any heating magic. Awake and ready for this day, we broke our fast on the beach watching the waves crash onto the sand. Then we carried on, further south. Our first stop of the day was next to the magnificent falls of Matai and Horseshoe. Both lay inside a magical forest hiding colonies of elves, spirits and in a hidden cave behind one of the waterfalls, a cave full of gems all with some magical abilities. Our next stop was at Lake Wilkie, described as an Arctic mirror lake, we wandered through all four zones of forest on wooden planks out on the lake. The lake was truly beautiful, mirroring the Mountain and forest rising behind it. After that we continued on the last leg of our journey for that day. It ended next to a Fjord nestled between green hills. As the sun has not yet finished her path over the sky that day, we ventured out following small paths up the hills. The hilltops ended abruptly in sharp cliffs plunging down into the water of the pacific ocean. There we stood for a while gazing out on the never ending ocean.

29.4

This day began, as the last one ended: with the beautiful view of the sea. There we ate our first meal of the day and left for the big city of Invercargill. The city itself was not too spectacular, but offered us a place to buy provisions (no, we have not yet eaten 2.5 kg of cabbage) and refuel our small pocket devices. It also allowed us access to the all knowing library. I really like, that we can only reach it so rarely, but we live in a globalized world and we are dependent on the invisible library, at least to store the records of our journey. Otherwise this day was not filled with adventure. We ended our trip in a dark forest, next to a secret pool. There we stopped for the night and marveled at the milky way glimmering above us.