Hobbilton or "I just hate the Franco-German friendship!"

You think your problems start when your roommates put on a little snoring concert at night with great tact and amazing nostril volume. polyphonic. Partially also in combination with other sounds that can be interpreted in a variety of ways. But that's not a problem. At some point you fall asleep on it.

Your problems only start when your bedroom is right next to the roof terrace that a horde of drunk and party-happy Germans/French people have taken over. When they then started banging beer bottles on the tables (it was well after midnight), I was blown away. "Can you PLEASE STOP THIS?". Well, at least they left the beer bottles... "Well, right now I hate the Franco-German friendship!" Richard said next to me...

All in all, our stay in Hamilton was quite enjoyable. The city itself doesn't have much to offer apart from a comic/board game shop and the "Hamilton Gardens". But at least. By the way, this applies to many cities here. Mostly practical and square buildings à la American small town look are lined up next to each other. So on Thursday we set out to visit the green (i.e. beautiful) side of Hamilton, together with our two Weimar boys, of course. We also got to know Chiara, who knew Richard and Anton from the good old Auckland days and who worked with Richard for Unicef at times. Chiara is really great and I'm looking forward to seeing her again when she visits Richard in Weimar. After four hours of walking around, we ended the day with a movie. That is, Richard, Anton and Chiara went to the cinema. But since Richard (the other one) and I had already seen the film, we decided to really look forward to the next day (or the DAY OF DAYS and the highlight of our trip so far) with laptop cinema and "The Lord of the Rings". ) agree.

In the early hours of the following day and after a hearty breakfast (as we know, hobbits eat at least four times what a normal citizen would eat) we set out for Matamata (the New Zealander says: "Mädamäda"). The only thing you need to know about this place: it is the gateway to THE place where THE Peter Jackson filmed THE Lord of the Rings trilogy. hobbiton. (By the way, the headline is a rather failed attempt to combine the two words "Hamilton" and "Hobbiton". I could have tried "Matamata" and "Hobbiton", but well...)

Well, I can really understand why good Peter chose New Zealand as a location. Never in my life have I seen sooooo green meadows. Even the outward journey through the green hilly landscape accompanied by the gentle sounds of the Lord of the Rings music was simply incredible. From time to time a sheep crossed our path (that's how they walk around). Perfect New Zealand flair.

Then the time had finally come and we could set foot on sacred ground. It was as if someone had removed the television frame and said, "Congratulations! You've REALLY landed in the Shire". Well, us and 2500 other people. This is one of the reasons why Hobbiton can only be reached with a guide. Otherwise, with so many people, everything would go haywire! Understandable but a pity.

Apart from the many people, however, the Shire feeling was perfect. We wandered from door to door and enjoyed the many small, detailed extras. Somehow you got the feeling that at night, when all the visitors are gone, the hobbits go back to their little huts and go on with their lives as if nothing had happened. At the end there was a "nice cool drink" in the "Green Dragon", the village tavern. Somehow it all happened way too fast for us to realize what a wonderful thing just happened to us!

Well and then we still had to kill four hours in Matamata - exactly the wrong place for that. Well, we got around the time somehow. Among other things, with funny conversations, walks and sushi!

Now we are sitting in our cozy hostel in Whitianga. We want to use the time here to relax and plan (and now finally get a job). I slept all day yesterday. Well, traveling is very exhausting.

Sequel follows,

Richard&Maggi, Sunday 11/13/2016, Whitianga 7:49 p.m