~ Frodo and the Ring

Once upon a time, Frodo had a beautiful ring. He loved the ring very much because it told him what mood he was in. After a while, though, it started to have negative effects on him and the hobbits around him. He started to believe he had superpowers - invisibility and the ability to control others - whenever he would wear it. Finally his friends convinced him that the ring was evil and needed to be destroyed. The problem was that the only place the ring could actually be destroyed was in very hot, volcanic fire. Realizing that the future of the world was probably at stake, Frodo and his faithful friends booked a helicopter ride to White Island, a live volcano. Having never ridden in a helicopter or tramped on a volcano before, they were all quite excited at the prospect of saving the world and having a one-of-a-kind experience at the same time. Unfortunately for the world, however, upon arrival at the island the hobbits were so entranced with what they were seeing and smelling that they completely forgot about the more weighty matters. When they did remember, it was too late. They begged and pleaded with Mr. Frodo to throw it away, but being near the site of so much power and sulfuric stench, Frodo was too overcome to resist the ring's power. The other hobbits shrank from the only possible positive solution to the problem (jumping him and biting the ring from his finger) so they reluctantly hopped back into the helicopter with Frodo, now completely in the ring's power. They flew away from the island, grateful for the incredible experience, especially since the world's doom was now imminent. Sorry everybody...


















(from Ben) After the Bagginses fled White Island, we chugged back into Rotorua to the Agrodome. This is a tourist attraction that puts on sheep shows and educates the fascinated on all the aspects of sheep shearing and sheep dogging. We were a little late for the shearing show, but the sheep dog demos were a lot of fun. We bummed around the grounds and checked out the exhibits on the different types of wool and the history of sheep shearing. After that, we motored up to the biggest city in New Zealand – Auckland. The drive took the rest of the day. On arrival to Auckland (pop 1.2 million), we were able to get lodging at a hostel just outside city center. We drove downtown and found out that parking takes eight eyes to find! Patrick had driven all day and was tired, hungry, and not a bit interested in navigating clogged streets. This was definitely a weary moment – not an ideal time to tackle a huge city. We wandered around downtown until we finally found a place called “Little Italy”. Angela and I split a delicious fettuccini dish, while Tom and Patrick weren’t as thrilled with their meals. But it was late, people were getting grumbly in their tumbly, and this place was a quiet spot in the middle of a noisy city. The only thing we heard was the peaceful screaming of the bungy swing across the street. We learned there that if you say “Earl Grey” quietly it sounds like “Peppermint”. :)

After dinner, we wound our way back to the hostel. Patrick found a pub to explore, and the rest of us were so tired that we stayed in and did little things like check email, and bathe.