The Long Expected Journey

It was in Leicester, England. Sometime in early 2022 that I messaged my good friend, Jon, and we whiled away the hours talking about our respective careers in acting and directing and how the shadow of COVID-19 was still altogether very long (and still is somewhat, even today), when I brought that subject back to where it would go from time to time over the last 8 or so years. All through our Twenties it had been this way.

“Hey, you know we’re coming up on 30, pal. We should do that New Zealand trip to do a tour of Middle-Earth and stuff! I was looking at a tour company earlier just to pass sometime at work.”

Clearly, being an admin (when not in Arts work) was riveting.
What I never expected was the laugh and then the silence that followed, and the voice of my usually (and I know he wouldn’t mind me saying this) safe friend saying:

“Well…are you serious? Because if you are…
Yeah. We should do it.”

The Lord of the Rings was how Jon and I, at the fine (gangly) age of 15, became friends. Geeks that we were, we started talking endlessly about Cinema, gaming and the rest is history. We’ve worked together on several projects and the careers we’re both pursuing is made all the better by the other.

I’m sure a lot of people, ourselves included, would like to think we’re Frodo Baggins and Sam Gamgee. All good manners and affection.

That said…we are most certainly Merry Brandybuck and Pippin Took.

For years, we had talked about journeying to “Middle Earth” and discovering the locations that meant so much to us. We’d taken the Tolkien Trail in Birmingham, England (where I now live and J.R.R. Tolkien grew up) and smoked our long pipes (nerds)

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So, there we were, sat outside. I was watching my badly made oat latté turn into something between yoghurt and cheese (how vegan) and slowly wondering when hypothermia was going to set in as British winter gave us both a resounding “f*ck you”. We didn’t care. We couldn’t. Because we had a laptop (or a phone, I can’t remember) open and were staring at a map of Aotearoa New Zealand on one page and “Red Carpet Tours” on another. The plan had begun.

But, here we come to the tease! I can’t tell you everything that was planned without giving it all away, at least for the most part. What I can tell you is the broad route and idea at least!

We’ll be flying via Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to Auckland on May 3rd 2024, we’ll then take a two week journey down to Queenstown with our tour. From there we will grab our own campervan and in just a week, do the entire journey back to Auckland to come home.
We truly are going There and Back Again.

On our journey, there will be eating lunch in a cave deep underground, glowworms glittering in “the sky”, whales in the ocean, helicopters to take us to mountains we could only dream of (and indeed, to a VERY familiar film location), food and good ale at The Green Dragon, finding our way to Bag End, the Trollshaws, touring Weta Workshop (which for an actor and a director, let alone geeks, is a real dream come true!), experiencing the incredible Maori culture and everything Aotearoa has to offer and all the while, taking copious photos and videos that will flood this site.

…There is also the small matter of me bungee jumping 140ft off a bridge over rushing water.

Let’s not forget that…even if part of me wants to.

So, come and join me, us, and the rest of the group that have come along for some of our journey. Leave comments, share the story everywhere you can and most importantly – I hope that this blog can inspire someone to do exactly what Jon and I are doing.

To just GO FOR IT. GO ON THE ADVENTURE!

After all, what have we got to lose? So, come on…

Let’s step out of the door.

See you in Auckland.

– Jake
27 April 2024

P.S. Jon is also writing about his version of events over on his Tumblr page, Misplaced Midlanders! Check it out!