iFriendly tour Kayaking and bird watching

Ratanui, Kayaking and bird watching...

Ratanui, Kayaking, bird watching and home grown mussels! (That's right, mussells grown on an underwater farm...)

Ratanui Lodge...  (A.k.a Ratatui lodge, which is what I kept calling it!)
http://ratanuilodge.com/

So far the most luxurious place iFriendly has stayed in so far...

A short walk across the road to the nearest beach and a short drive to Golden Bay Kayak, where you are greeted in the Kiwi way (super friendly way) and given instructions on how to manoeuver the kayak, given a spray skirt (this is the coolest most useful invention I have seen in the world of Kayaking) which is essentially a skirt. it grips on to kayak preventing you from getting wet or burnt by the sun.. GENIUS!

We steered around the coves, between the rocks and got some superb shots of the birds and seals in the area. Shag birds and sea gulls were the predominant and we saw two seals enjoying the sun.  They do smell a bit, but that is because they are in the sea a long time and because they eat octopus, which they tear apart... leaving the leftovers to rot in the sun... Nice!

In the evening we checked out a place just outside of Takaka, called the Mussel inn... Delicious big fat juicy mussels.. Yummy!

http://www.musselinn.co.nz/









Homework: 

B1/ B2/ C1 Write a letter to a friend describing a place you have been recently ...
Include an interesting fact about the place.
Advise your friend to visit the place, suggest what they should do whist they are there.

B1 - 70 words

B2/ C1 200 -250 words. For extra reading, click on the links in the texts.

iFriendly visit to Hobbiton - B1 B2 C1

The Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit movie trilogies

iFriendly visit to Hobbiton

Our visit to The Shire was much better than we had ever imagined... It was awesome... Far out! (as they like to say in New Zealand).

(Far out: Sounds American if you ask me, but pronounced with a New Zealand accent!)

Apparently, when film scouts found the Alexanders' sheep and beef farm just outside of Matamata, they knew it would be the perfect setting for Sir Peter Jackson's adaptation of the classic works of J.R.R Tolkien.  The Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit movie trilogies.

For those of you who are fans of the book or the movie, it is an amazing experience...

The coach picks you up and drives you straight to the film set, then it drops you off so that you can walk around.  A guide walks around with you and tells you the best place to take a photo.

Walking around was a very cool experience... You could probably imagine how I felt when we went to see the third part of the Hobbit Trilogy in Wellington.... a mere two days later! Very exciting, and seeing the movie set on the big screen was thrilling! To think I had actually walked around there and sat outside Bilbo Baggin's house...

Here are some shots from our visit...

Hobbit house... Did you know that this is just a facade??  There is actually nothing behind the door but earth.

 Knock knock!  Who's there? iFriendly.  iFriendly who?  iFriendly teacher!

 Peter Jackson employed staff to walk around the village everyday... to wash clothes, do some gardening etc... To make it look like people actually lived there.

 The Honey Maker's house...

Bilbo Baggin's house... Bag End!

Homework:

B1:  Underline all the vocabulary that you do not understand and look up the words in a dictionary.

B2 / C1:  Have you had the opportunity to visit a movie set?  Why don't you tell me about it?
or; find out about a movie set near you and write about it.