Hobbiton!

Today we drove from Rotorua to Matamata, which is where Hobbiton is. We paid $150 (for both of us) and had an awesome tour of the home of the hobbits. The bus ride from Matamata was similar to every bus tour I've been on, an excessively jaunty driver telling lame jokes and forty people with huge cameras around their necks. We were ultra cool and modern, taking our photos on our iPhones.

I was SO excited.

The attention to detail in the little hobbit houses was very impressive - hobbit-sized laundry on hobbit-sized washing lines. We learned that Peter Jackson hired people to walk from the hobbit front door to the hobbit clothes line, each morning to hang out washing, and then again each night to bring it back in. This was so that the paths would naturally look worn in and used. The gardens were full of HUGE (real) vegetables, which are maintained by five full-time gardeners, whose only job is to maintain the veggie patches.

Washing line, and the fake tree made of steel and polystyrene

Even though most of the hobbit houses were just windows and doors placed against the mountainside, when you look through the windows it looks as if there is a room behind them. This is done by embedding little boxes behind the window and setting them as windowsills.

so. cute.

We stopped in at the Green Dragon for a beer, which was included in our tour. The Green Dragon looks just like a hobbity (slightly Irish) watering hole, with hand carved wooden everything - tables, chairs, roof beams, everything. After getting us suitably tipsy, the tour took us through the gift shop (I love gift shops). We were restrained and only bought a couple of postcards.

I slept on the tour bus back to Matamata, where we then had a delicious lunch at the pub suggested by our jaunty tour guide. After all the excitement, we headed for Auckland. My last long drive of the trip (only 2.5 hours, thank god) but that's for another blog....

looking over Hobbiton. Those are tourists not hobbits.

Bilbo and Frodo Baggins' house, and the pipe smokin' bench. This is where Galdalf and Frodo smoke a pipe in Lord of the Rings, and where Bilbo smokes a pipe in The Hobbit.

That's the door to the Baggins' house behind my huge head and Grants small head.

xx  m&g

Queenstown

We only spent one night in Queenstown, which was good because we aren't thrill-seekers. The most thrilling thing we did in the "Adventure Capital" was look at some trout from an underwater observation deck. Better than bungy jumping I think.

See! as if that's not thrilling.

Thrilled Grant

After the daredevil fish experience, it was most definitely time for a drink. I tell you people, this country has the best wine. There's a Pinot Noir called (something) that you can only buy at bars (ie you can't buy a bottle to take home), and it is the best red wine I've ever had. 

Seriously.

 After a wine or three, we headed into town to check out the nightlife. We weren't disappointed - there's a pub called 'Cowboys' with free pool, free cowboy hats, a bucking bull, and a taxidermied bear.

Good evening.

Also the beer is this big.

 

Dunedin!

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Every ten minutes or so I say, “hey! My dad was born here!”. We drove about 4 hours from Christchurch, grant sleeping on the way and me singing loudly along to First Aid Kitt. The New Zealand countryside is beautiful and ever-changing.

We wandered down the hill from our backpackers (which was called Hogwartz, though there didn’t seem to be anything Potter-y about it), spent a couple of hours in the middle of town, had a couple of beers and really good chinese food. We went to the Dunedin Railway Station, which was beautiful, old and full of tourists.

Though there isn’t a lot to do as tourists on a budget, Dunedin is a super cute town. It was lovely just watching the town go by, sitting in the octagon (centre of town) and having a beer. Getting back up the hill to Hogwartz was a hard slog and I nearly gave up and slept on the steps of the beautiful cathedral.

Grant’s kiwi accent has had a good workout (I’m constantly telling him he cant do it in front of people). Driving up and down Baldwin Street, the steepest street in the world, was scary and hilarious (cue Grant: “thet’s a steep street bro”).  We are so relaxed and happy on this holiday, laughing a lot and taking each day as it comes. 

That's a steep street bro.

Inside Dunedin Train Station

The view from our window

It means trolley.

Having a beer at the Octagon

Party in our room

Dunedin Train Station

Dunedin Train Station

NEW ZEALAND!

My beautiful Grant and I are finally in NZ! We flew into Christchurch at 11.40pm on Tuesday, so our adventure really began on Wednesday morning (after a night's sleep in the airport hotel).
Our hire car - a Nissan Bluebird with very retro features such as a tan interior and suede armrest (not to mention the tortoiseshell trimmings) - has been great, though petrol here is $2.10p/L so perhaps we should start rolling it down the hills in neutral..

Christchurch really is an amazing sight. The 2010/2011 earthquakes have all but flattened more than half the city, with every second building in the midst of construction work or abandoned and dilapidated. Reminders of the earthquakes are everywhere, lopped trees, walls being held up by shipping crates, closed roads and an abundance of fluro yellow vests. I've been moved by the impact of the earthquakes, not just the fact that a whole city has been close to ruined, but by the city's ability to bounce back. Pop-up shops, quirky artwork and sculptures and brand new buildings are everywhere. One of the coolest things we have seen is a shopping mall called Re-Start which is constructed out of shipping containers!

Christchurch Cathedral. That scaffold is where the spire stood.

A common sight, random bits of surviving rubble

Weirdly enough, another common sight. These guys are everywhere!

The Re:START Mall

We started our day at the botanical gardens, which were lovely but not thriving, and not many flowers were around. The rose garden was quite pretty, with lovely red, pink and peachy orange roses abound. We met several ducks at the botanical gardens and saw two really big fish.

The prettiest part of the gardens..

We went to the museum today and 'oohed and aahhed' at Maori wood and bone carvings, woven baskets and an awesome 8ft canoe carved from a tree. There were also some gorgeous artifacts from early European settlers, such as hand made shoes, a penny farthing, spectacular crockery and vases, and furniture.

The 7 year old in me just exploded with excitement. Spectacular dolls house.

Shoes (for people with very small ankles apparently)

We also drove through Lyttelton and Gordon's Bay, a few kms out of Christchurch. The scenery was gorgeous. Grant pointed out that there were no safety railing and a 100km/h speed limit while winding around the cliffside, so we drove slowly and slightly in the middle of the road. We went for a walk along the coast (freezing cold), and drove aimlessly down a road that eventually led us to some sort of Christian summercamp...

These are taken about half way between Lyttelton and Gordon's Bay

 
Tonight is our last night in Christchurch, tomorrow we are heading to Dunedin, where my dad was born. So far we are relaxed, impressed, and crazy excited for the next couple of weeks exploring the land of the long white cloud :)

Happy chappy!!