Thursday, April 19 - Sunday, April 22
An Overview of Our New Zealand Trip
Day 1 (April 19th)
- We arrived in Wellington (north island) at 4pm, via a ferry from the south island.
- We picked up our new rental car, and drove to our bed & breakfast.
- It started raining, but we grabbed our umbrellas (from Japan) and walked to the waterfront and visited Te Papa National Museum. We learned about history of indigenous Maori people in New Zealand, and even saw the end of a fashion show in the main gallery.
- For dinner, we walked to Courtenay Place, a busy street with many restaurants, and found the Red Head Irish Restaurant, above an Irish pub. We had a very filling dinner, then we walked back to our bed & breakfast and got our car.
- We drove to the Mt. Victoria lookout, and enjoyed 360 degree views of Wellington at night. The landscape of the New Zealand capital city reminded us of San Francisco a bit.
- We returned to our bed & breakfast and called it a night.
Kristen Tut(?) at a lookout in Wellington.
Day 2 (April 20th)
- We woke up at our bed & breakfast and tried some toast with Vegemite. (We weren’t fans.)
- Our first stop was Old St. Paul Church, which had a beautiful wooden interior, and its exterior had inspired gothic church styles in England.
- We started the five hour drive to Rotorua.
- 1st stop: Levin – Bought bananas from a street vendor, and took her suggestion to walk along a trail to find a hidden lake. When driving later, we found another lake and sat next to it while eating lunch.
Bushwalk on the way to Rotorua.
- 2nd stop: Foxton Beach – The lake was dry, but we saw the ocean on the west coast.
- 3rd stop: Bulls – A town like no “udder.” (Guess what this town is famous for?)
- 4th stop: Mangaweka Gorge – We drove by rivers and valleys.
- 5th stop: Taihape – Gumboot throwing capital of the world.
Gumboot Throwing Capital of the World
- Drove through Waiouru – We saw volcanoes in the distance, including Mt. Doom from Mordor (Lord of the Rings movies).
- Drove through Turangi
- 6th stop: Lake Taupo – We drove by the largest lake in New Zealand—it looked like an ocean—and we saw people fishing for trout.
- As we drove north towards Rotorua, we saw steam bellowing from the ground in every direction. At first we thought there were fires in the distance, but this was actually steam!
- 7th stop: Huka Falls – This gushing waterfall moved 220,000 liters of water per second!
- 8th stop: A geothermal power plant, harnessing massive plumes of steam and turning them into electricity. So much steam!
Huka Falls: Hydro Power Never Looked So Good
- Arrived in Rotorua – The town sits on the Pacific Ring of Fire, and was “shaped and colored by extraordinary and geothermal forces.” The entire town smelled of sulfur, but we got used to it after a few hours.
- Our hotel room had a “Geyser View” – a great lookout over a geyser behind the hotel, along with craters of boiling mud. Really cool view!
Signs of geothermal energy were everywhere in Rotorua.
- Polynesian Spa – We visited this spa, rated among the Top 10 in the World and known for the special properties of the water. We reserved a private spa room with a natural spring pool. It was really hot and felt great!
- Dinner at Fat Dog – We enjoyed gorged on huge portions – Ryan had two lamb shanks, and Kristen ate a kids burger and a caramel slice (her new favorite New Zealand treat!)
- Back at the hotel, we visited the sauna and sweated out the day’s travels before drifting off to sleep.
Day 3 (April 21st)
- We got an early start, took a few minutes to appreciate the geyser outside of our hotel window, then drove 20 minutes to Hells Gate Geothermal Park for our mud baths! This is a must-see attraction in Rotorua. We were the first customers there, and while they prepared our mud baths, we took a walk through their on-site geothermal park. We saw craters of boiling mud, the largest hot waterfall in the southern hemisphere, black/gray/white mud, a mud volcano, and we appreciated the desolate landscape that gave this place its name. In stark contrast, it was amazing how green some sections were, as a result of this special ecosystem.
Exploring Hells Gate Geothermal Park
- We returned to the main building, and our mud baths were ready. We submerged into the muddy waters and placed mud on our faces, backs, and arms. It felt absolutely amazing! The high sulfur content of the water, the hot temperature, and the special properties of the mud felt like it was injecting moisture deep into our skin. The mud baths lasted only twenty minutes, but they were fantastic! Not so fantastic were the cold showers we were required to take afterwards. We then plunged into a sulfur spring pool for 20 minutes until finally taking hot showers and getting ready for the rest of our day’s adventures.
Mud baths and sulfur spas...it's the life!
- We drove north through forest landscapes and stopped at Fitzgerald Glade Café for snacks (sausage roll and caramel slice).
- Our next stop was Tirau, a town known for its corrugated iron buildings formed into animal shapes.
Even the buildings look like sheep!
Next stop....
The Shire!
(from The Lord of the Rings Movies)
Kristen: daughter of Chris, and Ryan: son of Jack, exploring the Shire!
- We continued our drive, on the way to…The Shire! We traveled to the small town of Matamata to see the natural landscape/set of “The Shire” from the Lord of the Rings movies. To get excited during the drive, we played the movies’ soundtracks on our iPad.
On the road to Middle-earth.
- We arrived at the tour’s welcome center, and we were instantly excited. Kristen’s goal was to “meet” a sheep, and a golden opportunity appeared before us! We pet, fed, and held sheep and baby lambs in the sheep farm experience area. We enjoyed lunch at the Shires Rest Café before boarding a tour bus to take us closer to the rolling hills of the Alexander brothers’ farm that made up the set of one of the most iconic regions of Middle Earth.
On the set of the Shire, which was decked out for the upcoming Hobbit movies.
- Our tour guide was fantastic, and for the next 1.5 hours, she led us along many fantastic sights and shared fun facts about the movies:
- The set had recently been restored in preparation for the newest Hobbit movies, and it was a magnificent site. We really felt like we’d been transported into the movie, since there were no signs of modern life (no power lines, buildings, or roads). We did see sheep on the neighboring hills, but we learned these landowners received early-morning phone calls from the movie production on filming days, and they relocated their herds to the other side of the hills.
Bag End: Up Close
- We saw over 20 “Hobbit holes” (big & small). We saw Sam’s house/hole (yellow front door), and Bag End (with a fake tree on top).
Hobbit Holes Everywhere!
- The “party tree” was next to a lake, with the Green Dragon and other town buildings nestled on the other side.
Partying at the "Party Tree" from the movies.
- In the party scene, the sunrise stood-in for sunset, since the filmmakers wanted the sun to set on the opposite side as it naturally occurred.
- During filming of the party scene, there were dozens of takes, and Peter Jackson actually commissioned a 1% beer (SobeRing Thought) to serve during filming so his actors could endure the all-night filming without blacking out from intoxication.
- The New Zealand Army built 1.5km of roads, and the government put in place a strict “no-fly” zone around the whole area, and punished anyone flying over the confidential set with a lifetime loss of their pilot’s license! (Some did violate the no-fly zone, and were faced with this penalty!)
Welcome to Hobbiton. Enjoy a cold one at the Green Dragon or take a relaxing stroll through town.
- Peter Jackson and his family made guest appearances in the movies, and he even involved his parents by taking photographs of them in Hobbit clothes and hanging them on the wall of Bag End as Bilbo’s family.
- The Hobbit holes were only 1m deep, and all of the interiors were added from filming on a soundstage in Wellington.
- To give the illusion that the Hobbit hole chimneys were real, the filmmakers put boiling pots inside so they would produce “smoke.”
Daily chores in the Shire, in between our seven meals a day.
- Unfortunately, our tour had to end, and we returned via tour bus to the Shires Rest Café. However, we had another opportunity to play with sheep and lambs, and we actually got to hold and feed the baby lambs!
Meanwhile, back on the ranch...Kristen and Ryan meet sheep and hold lambs!
- We left Matamata and drove to Auckland via Hamilton. We explored Auckland by car and found a Greek-Indian restaurant that was very unique and served great curry. We spent our last night in New Zealand at a hotel (with a kiwi on top) near the airport and went to bed early.
Day 4 (April 22nd)
- We woke at 3:45am, drove to the airport, and dropped off the car.
- We visited the Air New Zealand Lounge, and Ryan discovered Black Doris Plums – the most delicious fruit ever!
- Our flight was half empty, and we each had our own row. We turned our three economy seats each into our version of a first class lie-flat bed!
New Zealand was beyond beautiful, and it was by far our favorite country of the trip! We hope one day to go there and back again.
Kristen: Hobbit for a Day
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