Bohemian Conservative
Where We Live
Map showing both north and south islands of New Zealand. Mae and I are currently on the north island in Rotorua and will be moving to Auckland, about a 2-3 hour's drive north. Auckland is NZ's largest city, roughly the same square miles as Los Angeles, but with about a million people.
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Close-up of the northern two-thirds of the north island. The area used as Mordor in Lord of the Rings, Tongariro National Park, is between New Plymouth and Wanganui. The area used for the Hobbit Village would be in the center of a triangulated area between Rotorua, Hamilton and Tauranga, near the town of Matamata (not shown).
posted by Mae at 4:56 PM
2 Comments:
The Brits gave the spellings to the locations because Maori was a spolen, not written, language.
One peculiarity is that the "wh" is like a "ph" in other English dialects, and is pronounced as an "f."
Example: the city of Whangarei, north of Auckland, is pronounced "FAHN-GA-RAY." Same with Whakatane: "FAH-KAH-TAHN-EE."
I just got urbanized myself. Good luck.
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