Photograph

58 - Tiki Tour

"How was Hobbiton?"

"Oh my God, Ben, it was amazing. I am definitely coming back as a hobbit in my next life and living there, and the behind the scenes tour Peter arranged for me was incredible. Please thank him again for me."

"You can thank him in person when you get your gorgeous self back here, love."

"I know, darling, but there is no such thing as too many thanks for the man that brought Tolkien to life for millions. He's New Zealand's answer to JK Rowling."

Ben chuckled. "I'll tell him. What else did you get up to?"

"I had a swim in some thermal hot pools in a place called Wairakei. Have you ever done that?"

"No."

"You would love it. The water temperature is between thirty-eight and forty-two degrees and it's full of silica and all kinds of other minerals – so good for you, apparently, much like when they used to take the waters at Bath, only hotter. I felt absolutely incredible afterwards."

"So like taking a hot bath then?" I heard the teasing note in his voice.

"Philistine!"

"Where are you now?"

"In Taupo. Tomorrow I'm driving through the national park with volcanoes and everything. Hang on...umm...I'm probably pronouncing these wrong, but here goes...Mounts Ruapehu, Tongariro and Ngauruhoe. That last one was Mount Doom in the movies."

"They're extinct, I presume."

"Well...no, not so much."

"Cara..."

"There hasn't been an eruption since 1996, I'm told, so I think I'm safe Cumbers." I grinned to myself when he made little grumble noises. "I'll see you some time tomorrow night. And by the way, I've got our Halloween costumes covered for this year." My grin widened when he gave a loud groan.

"Oh lord, woman, what have you done now?"

"I bought a Thranduil and a Bilbo costume...I'll let you work out which one of us is going to be the tall Elven king and which one the short hobbit with large hairy feet."

Ben's laugh sounded so lovely my heart gave a pang at not being there with him. When I'd decided to drive back to Wellington from Auckland after the tour finished so that I could see something of the beautiful New Zealand countryside I had heard so much about, I hadn't taken into account how much I'd miss him even though we'd just had two nights together. But I had travelled to the far side of the world and may never be back, so no matter how much I missed my gorgeous god of kissing, I was also enjoying the lush green countryside and incredible friendliness of the locals.

Our last show of the tour had been epic; Ed had wanted to go out with a bang and everyone was fired up to give phenomenal performances. I changed only the last song from my Wellington repertoire; instead of My Guy, Jake had joined me for a cover of Pink's Just Give Me a Reason and it got a great reception from the audience.

Ed thrilled his fans of course doing all his hits and we did Photograph together again. When we were in Australia he'd sung You Need Me, I Don't Need You as his encore song, but he swapped that in New Zealand for I See Fire, the song he'd written for Peter for The Hobbit: the Desolation of Smaug. It had been his first number one hit here and the crowd in Wellington had gone wild when he'd sung it. Ed had joined Peter, Fran, Ben and I for a while after the show and he and Peter had recounted the story of how he'd gotten involved with the film and the process of writing and recording the song in Wellington the previous year.