Hobbiton & Co

22.01.2017 – 24.01.2017

TAGE 79 - 81

HOBBITON / TAURANGA / HOT WATER BEACH / CATHEDRAL COVE

Hobbiton

Finally, it was time for us to visit Hobbiton! If there was one thing in New Zealand that I had been looking forward to for a long time, it was visiting the film sets of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. It is, of course, a major tourist attraction (like almost everything here), and you have to book a tour in advance to even get in.

The film set is located on a private cattle and sheep farm, and visitors are taken to the film set by buses (tours start every 5 minutes with large coach buses, just to give you an idea of how many visitors there are each day). You are then guided through Hobbiton by a tour guide for two hours, learning numerous interesting background information along the way, and at the end, you get a beer at "The Green Dragon Inn".

It really felt like being in the movie, especially because everything was real! Jozy and I, being the little photo junkies that we are, had difficulties staying with our group and took what felt like a billion pictures, but after all, you don't visit Hobbiton every day! And luckily, the weather held up somewhat! Of course, there were occasional rain showers, otherwise it would be a bit boring, but for the most part, the sun shone and we had a great time in the realm of the hobbits!

Tauranga

Afterwards, we continued to Tauranga. Our first stop in a new city is always the tourist information, where we find out about the "must-dos" in the area. Then we look for a campsite, and then we usually see how much time is left in the day. On this day, we went to the hot pools in the evening to relax a little. You have to take some time to unwind every now and then.

The next day, we started full speed ahead again. The sun made an appearance once again, and we took advantage of the beautiful weather to climb the summit of "Mauao" and get a view of Tauranga from above.

The mountain is located on the Mount Maunganui peninsula, a suburb of Tauranga. Afterwards, we went into the city as we wanted to look for some souvenirs. I didn't find any souvenirs, but I did find a carry-on suitcase (the largest one available) - I hope it's the solution to my luggage problem. Well, if I'm honest with myself, it's not THE solution, because I can't transport much more with it, but since I had to drag my carry-on luggage across the airport after sorting through it, because it was just too heavy, I definitely have some relief for the next 5 (yes, that's how many more there are!) flights.

In the evening, we went on a glowworm kayak tour. We were skeptical at first, as our last kayak tour wasn't the best experience, but it was definitely worth it! We had perfect weather conditions (it has to happen sometime) and it was truly magical to paddle through nature and be in a cave surrounded by glowworms.

Glowworms only exist in Australia and New Zealand, so it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Unfortunately, you can't take pictures of the glowworms... but there are moments that can't be captured with a photo.

Hot Water Beach

After a rather short night, we continued to Hot Water Beach. Here, you can dig holes in the beach when the tide is out and then bathe in the warm water that comes from underground. That sounds like an adventure, doesn't it? Today was even a summer day with hot temperatures... so nothing stood in our way! We arrived at Hot Water Beach around noon, but somehow our research on the times of low tide was a bit off. The tide came in, so we couldn't dig any holes. So, it was postponed to the next day, where hopefully the weather will be just as good. For us, we went to Cathedral Cove, which is a few kilometers away from Hot Water Beach.