Matamata
Tiffany and I have just arrived in Rotorua, a small city known for
hot springs (and the accompanying smell of rotting eggs). It has been a very busy two days – hence no
update yesterday.
We stopped at an observation point over the crater and were impressed by the lushness of the foliage – while there is no soil as the island is so young, there are a few particular species of fern, brush and trees that do quite well in the silica rich volcanic rock. The path we took from there took us around the volcano, providing some great views out toward the flat, marshy plains as we made our way to some very rugged terrain to access lava caves. We didn’t venture into them as they were a bit too small, a bit too dark, and a bit too jagged looking for us.
Returning to the base of the volcano we met up with the path we had taken up and traversed the steep and slippery terrain back down to near the docks. After a bit of a rest laying out on the dock in the breeze, we wandered around the island past the many bachs (old shovels constructed when mining occurred on the island). Many have been torn down, but there are a few who still hold deeds to the properties and seem to use them as secluded island getaways.
We got back to shore a bit after 4:00 and headed up Queen Street to stop by Country Road, an Aussie clothes store, where the prices are heaps better in Auckland. After picking up a bag, we went back up to our room and rested for a bit before striking back out to meet Abs and some of his friends for a 6:30 dinner. We walked by SkyCity on our way to Viaduct Harbour in search of a suitable restaurant. With no great choices, we headed back to Britomart and selected Tony’s Street Garage, a trendy bar along Quay Street with great atmosphere. We ordered a proscuttio pizza (half price on Tuesdays!) and enjoyed the experience as the bar quickly filled up – the food was delicious and we enjoyed the people watching before we headed out (with a brief stop on the bean bag chairs in the square) to our hotel to wait around for the elusive Abs.
Around 8:20 we headed out to the address Abs gave us to meet him and his friends. It was a pretty area (and only three blocks from our hotel) – and a good thing too because we enjoyed sitting in a plaza with a waterfall and light feature (using the free internet, no less) until around 9:00 when Abs and his friends rolled in. The eight of us had a grand time talking for an hour or two before Tiffany and I headed back to the hotel to catch some sleep… After all, we had a car to pick up!
We checked out of the hotel around 8:30 and made the twenty-minute walk to the car rental place. I will admit to being mildly apprehensive about starting out on the journey, but after the paperwork was filled out and the boot (trunk) loaded, I made my first left-hand turn onto the left side of the street and we were off! The first stop was to be Countdown, the grocery store, to pick up a few provisions for the car rides. I am proud to report that I navigated through quite a few streets of Auckland (I am quite lucky we covered a lot of ground the previous day on foot) to successfully make it to Countdown sans directions. After making our purchases, Tiffany plugged in our first destination (or best she could, without an address, opps), and we caught the Southern Motorway out of Auckland. Driving on the left was not strange at all – I suppose you just default to what everyone else is doing. There was quite a bit of traffic, and it didn’t help that everyone was not even attempting to go the speed limit, so we spent the first 15 minutes on the motorway poking along at 60-80km/hr (not the posted 100). Finally, free of the city, we got up to speed and were treated to some spectacular views – green cliffs, rolling hills, hidden lakes. As New Zealand is a country of only 4 million people, the motorway network is not very expansive: most of the smaller cities and towns are connected by State Highways – two lane roads which cut over massive sweeping landscapes and are punctuated at wide intervals with small, small, small towns (no stop light, the speed limit drops from 100 to 70 for about 1km, you pass a few buildings, and then the speed limit goes back up).
Our GPS began to give us directions counter to what seemed logical based on the signage, so after one slip-up I decided to trust the signs and follow them to Matamata (mah-tuh-mah-tuh) for our first adventure of the day – Hobbiton. Sure enough, the signs did not lead us wrong, and upon entry into this town (no stoplights, but a few roundabouts and two main streets which crossed and went on for three or so blocks) we saw signs for the Hobbiton Tours. We parked in the visitor center and went in to enquire about tickets. Finding that tours left every 37 minutes (oddly specific, I know) we opted to go grab lunch and have a bit of a wander around the town. We walked the main streets, not too difficult a task, and found a restaurant which intrigued us both. Being in New Zealand, I felt it only appropriate to get the lamb burger – while it was decent, I was a bit disappointed by their overzealous condiment and veg additions. Enough lettuce to feed a rabbit for a few days, grilled peppers of any variety they could find, mayonnaise, onions, beets, pickles, beet juice, and a few other things I can’t recall at the moment.
After lunch we wandered down the main cross street to Founders Park and snapped a picture of the mountains beyond the town, before hastily making our way back for the 1:14 tour. We purchased our tickets, loaded a bus with three other people, and set off toward the Shire’s Rest Café, where we were to meet with a large group of people and commence the tour. The fifteen or so minute drive out to the site, a functioning sheep farm, was beautiful, with lush rolling hills (more like mini mountains) – but we had no time to enjoy the views from the farm as we promptly switched to the bus with all the other people waiting to begin the tour.
And so the explanation I have been avoiding must begin: Hobbiton, as many of you may know, is the village in which the Hobbits of JRR Tolkien’s The Lord of The Rings trilogy (as well as the two new movies based on the book The Hobbit) were set and filmed. The shire, as it is known, was constructed on the Alexander’s sheep farm back in the early 2000s for the filming of the first set of movies, and was partially (as per the contract), but was stopped by massive amounts of rain. In the meantime, the Alexander’s began to find people showing up at their door asking to see the set. After a lot of legal wrangling (and some lucrative deals, no doubt) the Alexander’s jointly with the movie producer began running the Hobbiton tours around the shire with the remaining buildings. A few years back, when it was decided to film the two prequels (The Hobbit), the demolished “Hobbit Holes” were rebuilt, a fake tree was put in to replace one which had been removed after the filming, and on an adjacent field more buildings were built.
On the short drive across the farm to the film site, they asked the bus if everyone had seen the movie – everyone laughed. Now, I have never seen Lord of the Rings – back in high school my friends made me watch the first one, but when I asked at “the most important part,” how much longer the movie was, they got mad at me. Needless to say, I kept my mouth shut in front of the movie fans on the bus, and was happy to just soak it all in on the hour-long walk around the set with our knowledgeable tour guide. We got to see the new sets on which the filming for The Hobbit movies wrapped up in November. Pictures will go up at some point! I’m sure all of the friends who told me I “had to go” on the tour will be happy to see them!
As we waited to board the bus back to the Shire’s Rest Café to wrap up the tour and return to Matamata, it began to rain – we could not have asked for more cooperative weather. At the Shire’s Rest we got to feed some sheep and then loaded up to Matamata. From Matamata, we picked up the car and headed out to Rotorua – a pretty drive through a bit of rain and more beautiful landscapes. Rotorua was substantially larger than Matamata, and we were happy to get out of (by this time) cold rain and into the room for the evening. In a bit we will head next door to the affiliated bar for a free barbecue, and then probably an early sleep!
We headed out from the hotel in Auckland around 9:30 to grab a few
provisions and catch a ferry to Rangitoto, a volcanic island 25 minutes from Auckland
which only came into existence around six-hundred years ago. We bought our tickets, hung around the
waterfront a bit, and caught the 10:30 ferry to the Island, receiving a
narrated tour of the Harbour on the trip over.
Upon disembarking, we walked along the shore and began the steep ascent
to the top. While we started out strong,
things got quite a bit more difficult as we hit a nearly sheer stretch 20
minutes from the summit. Finally, after
a few breathers, we broke through some trees and were rewarded with an
incredible 360-degree view of Auckland and the surrounding islands. We sought refuge from the sun in an abandoned
concrete army bastion at the mouth of the crater and cooled off for a
while. After hydrating a bit, we
wandered the tallest points of the mountain and sat in the sun just soaking up
the views before turning around to begin a descent and more exploration of the
island.
We stopped at an observation point over the crater and were impressed by the lushness of the foliage – while there is no soil as the island is so young, there are a few particular species of fern, brush and trees that do quite well in the silica rich volcanic rock. The path we took from there took us around the volcano, providing some great views out toward the flat, marshy plains as we made our way to some very rugged terrain to access lava caves. We didn’t venture into them as they were a bit too small, a bit too dark, and a bit too jagged looking for us.
Returning to the base of the volcano we met up with the path we had taken up and traversed the steep and slippery terrain back down to near the docks. After a bit of a rest laying out on the dock in the breeze, we wandered around the island past the many bachs (old shovels constructed when mining occurred on the island). Many have been torn down, but there are a few who still hold deeds to the properties and seem to use them as secluded island getaways.
Around 2:45, we turned around to finally head back to catch the
ferry after an action-packed day on Rangitoto.
While it made for quite the long and tiring expedition, we had a great
time. I spent the journey back on the
top deck in a massive amount of wind (large men stood like weathermen in a
hurricane for some pictures). I snapped
some shots along the way; the experience reminded me a lot of the trip back to
Seattle from Victoria on the Clipper many years back. The Auckland SkyCity Tower is eerily similar
to the Space Needle, and the port scenery and surrounding volcanic islands lend
to the scene.
We got back to shore a bit after 4:00 and headed up Queen Street to stop by Country Road, an Aussie clothes store, where the prices are heaps better in Auckland. After picking up a bag, we went back up to our room and rested for a bit before striking back out to meet Abs and some of his friends for a 6:30 dinner. We walked by SkyCity on our way to Viaduct Harbour in search of a suitable restaurant. With no great choices, we headed back to Britomart and selected Tony’s Street Garage, a trendy bar along Quay Street with great atmosphere. We ordered a proscuttio pizza (half price on Tuesdays!) and enjoyed the experience as the bar quickly filled up – the food was delicious and we enjoyed the people watching before we headed out (with a brief stop on the bean bag chairs in the square) to our hotel to wait around for the elusive Abs.
Around 8:20 we headed out to the address Abs gave us to meet him and his friends. It was a pretty area (and only three blocks from our hotel) – and a good thing too because we enjoyed sitting in a plaza with a waterfall and light feature (using the free internet, no less) until around 9:00 when Abs and his friends rolled in. The eight of us had a grand time talking for an hour or two before Tiffany and I headed back to the hotel to catch some sleep… After all, we had a car to pick up!
We checked out of the hotel around 8:30 and made the twenty-minute walk to the car rental place. I will admit to being mildly apprehensive about starting out on the journey, but after the paperwork was filled out and the boot (trunk) loaded, I made my first left-hand turn onto the left side of the street and we were off! The first stop was to be Countdown, the grocery store, to pick up a few provisions for the car rides. I am proud to report that I navigated through quite a few streets of Auckland (I am quite lucky we covered a lot of ground the previous day on foot) to successfully make it to Countdown sans directions. After making our purchases, Tiffany plugged in our first destination (or best she could, without an address, opps), and we caught the Southern Motorway out of Auckland. Driving on the left was not strange at all – I suppose you just default to what everyone else is doing. There was quite a bit of traffic, and it didn’t help that everyone was not even attempting to go the speed limit, so we spent the first 15 minutes on the motorway poking along at 60-80km/hr (not the posted 100). Finally, free of the city, we got up to speed and were treated to some spectacular views – green cliffs, rolling hills, hidden lakes. As New Zealand is a country of only 4 million people, the motorway network is not very expansive: most of the smaller cities and towns are connected by State Highways – two lane roads which cut over massive sweeping landscapes and are punctuated at wide intervals with small, small, small towns (no stop light, the speed limit drops from 100 to 70 for about 1km, you pass a few buildings, and then the speed limit goes back up).
Our GPS began to give us directions counter to what seemed logical based on the signage, so after one slip-up I decided to trust the signs and follow them to Matamata (mah-tuh-mah-tuh) for our first adventure of the day – Hobbiton. Sure enough, the signs did not lead us wrong, and upon entry into this town (no stoplights, but a few roundabouts and two main streets which crossed and went on for three or so blocks) we saw signs for the Hobbiton Tours. We parked in the visitor center and went in to enquire about tickets. Finding that tours left every 37 minutes (oddly specific, I know) we opted to go grab lunch and have a bit of a wander around the town. We walked the main streets, not too difficult a task, and found a restaurant which intrigued us both. Being in New Zealand, I felt it only appropriate to get the lamb burger – while it was decent, I was a bit disappointed by their overzealous condiment and veg additions. Enough lettuce to feed a rabbit for a few days, grilled peppers of any variety they could find, mayonnaise, onions, beets, pickles, beet juice, and a few other things I can’t recall at the moment.
After lunch we wandered down the main cross street to Founders Park and snapped a picture of the mountains beyond the town, before hastily making our way back for the 1:14 tour. We purchased our tickets, loaded a bus with three other people, and set off toward the Shire’s Rest Café, where we were to meet with a large group of people and commence the tour. The fifteen or so minute drive out to the site, a functioning sheep farm, was beautiful, with lush rolling hills (more like mini mountains) – but we had no time to enjoy the views from the farm as we promptly switched to the bus with all the other people waiting to begin the tour.
And so the explanation I have been avoiding must begin: Hobbiton, as many of you may know, is the village in which the Hobbits of JRR Tolkien’s The Lord of The Rings trilogy (as well as the two new movies based on the book The Hobbit) were set and filmed. The shire, as it is known, was constructed on the Alexander’s sheep farm back in the early 2000s for the filming of the first set of movies, and was partially (as per the contract), but was stopped by massive amounts of rain. In the meantime, the Alexander’s began to find people showing up at their door asking to see the set. After a lot of legal wrangling (and some lucrative deals, no doubt) the Alexander’s jointly with the movie producer began running the Hobbiton tours around the shire with the remaining buildings. A few years back, when it was decided to film the two prequels (The Hobbit), the demolished “Hobbit Holes” were rebuilt, a fake tree was put in to replace one which had been removed after the filming, and on an adjacent field more buildings were built.
On the short drive across the farm to the film site, they asked the bus if everyone had seen the movie – everyone laughed. Now, I have never seen Lord of the Rings – back in high school my friends made me watch the first one, but when I asked at “the most important part,” how much longer the movie was, they got mad at me. Needless to say, I kept my mouth shut in front of the movie fans on the bus, and was happy to just soak it all in on the hour-long walk around the set with our knowledgeable tour guide. We got to see the new sets on which the filming for The Hobbit movies wrapped up in November. Pictures will go up at some point! I’m sure all of the friends who told me I “had to go” on the tour will be happy to see them!
As we waited to board the bus back to the Shire’s Rest Café to wrap up the tour and return to Matamata, it began to rain – we could not have asked for more cooperative weather. At the Shire’s Rest we got to feed some sheep and then loaded up to Matamata. From Matamata, we picked up the car and headed out to Rotorua – a pretty drive through a bit of rain and more beautiful landscapes. Rotorua was substantially larger than Matamata, and we were happy to get out of (by this time) cold rain and into the room for the evening. In a bit we will head next door to the affiliated bar for a free barbecue, and then probably an early sleep!
Whaaat I'm so jealous that you saw Hobbiton! Also, clearly we need to have a LOTR marathon sometime, whether you want to or not. :D
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