After an impromptu day of sightseeing in and around Auckland, we got back (somewhat) to the itinerary I had planned before we left. We were on a tight schedule today, so we got an early wake up call and said goodbye to the Rydges Hotel and Auckland. A beautiful city with very friendly people, you should visit it sometime!
We hopped in the car and drove through the beautiful countryside and down to Matamata. What's in Matamata, you may ask? It's the one thing that Josh really wanted to do in New Zealand... Hobbiton! The site where they built the set for the Lord of the Rings movies is tucked away on a sheep farm, and you can tour the set. The farm is owned by the Alexander family, where they run daily tours of Hobbiton, then show you how they shear the sheep. =0)
Remember when I said to invest in a GPS unit if driving in NZ? This is because none of the highways are straight thoroughfares with multiple lanes taking you from point A to point B; you wind, twist, and turn through the countryside and there are not really signs posted to point you towards attractions. In fact, we did not see one single sign saying that we were getting close to the Hobbiton tours, or going towards Matamata. We were late for the tour that I had intended us to be on, and the lack of signage was making me nervous that we were nowhere near where we needed to be. Josh had complete faith, however, and was not surprised in the least when all of a sudden we came around and up the corner of a rolling hill and there it was! I am convinced that the GPS did not send us on a direct route, considering the long drive down roads that were not quite wide enough for 2 vehicles to pass, and where we saw nothing but sheep on the hills for miles. But it did get us there, and everywhere else we were trying to go, which is more than I can say for my own unit at home.
We arrived about 10 minutes too late for the first tour, so we had some time to kill. We changed into heavier clothing to accommodate the rain and cool weather, then wandered into the deserted Shire's Rest Cafe. The Cafe is where the tours depart from, you can get some grub, and they have a modest amount of souvenirs there. Once we had finished inside and wandered back out, I snapped a few photos and took some video of the sheep hanging out nearby.
The Shire's Rest Cafe, a very unassuming building. The kitchen is downstairs, you go up the stairs and through the slider to get to the cafe counter and the souvenirs.
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| This sign wasn't even facing the road. There were no signs facing the road... |
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| The pastureland next to the Cafe |
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| View of surrounding hills across the street from the Cafe, Hobbiton is back there somewhere... |
(I apologize ahead of time for the gum smacking in the video)
I got a little frustrated that I could not catch them on film, but a lot of the sheep were rolling around like dogs, which was quite funny! =0) You can see how beautiful the scenery is though.
aaand... then my camera broke! :( The toggle got stuck on video mode and I was unable to take photos from my camera for the rest of the trip. Don't worry, I stole Josh's camera and used that most of the time he he.
Since the movie set is currently being restored, and added to by crew members, we had to sign this confidentiality agreement stating that we would not post any photos. In the interest of not getting sued, I'm not going to post any of the actual photos from Hobbiton. I do have to recommend that you take the tour if you ever find yourself in New Zealand and you like the LOTR series. It was informative and neat to see all of the activity going on on-set as they added new hobbit holes and restored everything to the way it looked while filming the first movies.
Here are some more shots of us goofing around before the tour.
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| Watch out, here comes the Josh-Monster! |
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| Gandalf in Mordor? Oh man... Josh, please don't kill me for not remembering this one ;) |
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| Turning the camera on me |
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| Hello! |
As part of the tour, they take you over to a shed or barn where they give you bottles to feed lambs and give you a demonstration on how they shear sheep. The lambs were quite friendly and, again, behaved just like puppies. Adorable, little puppies =0)
WARNING: Adorable lambs in action!
Cute little guys huh? I especially love their tails, and how the one totally bogarted the bottle after abandoning it in the first place.
Next up, was the shearing. The guy that demonstrated the sheep shearing was a neat dude that was very mellow and quite friendly. He really opened up and wouldn't stop talking when he found out we were from California because he had a friend from Fresno that he had recently visited on a trip to the US. They took him to Yosemite, which he loved (us too obviously!), and he also stayed in the friend's house in San Clemente. Talk about a small world considering where both Josh and I grew up! Oh, and he was wearing the most hideous sock-like shoes I have ever seen. Seriously nasty looking ha ha! They were designed to be able to feel the sheep's movements and actually grip the body so they don't squirm away. Naturally they were covered in lanolin and poop. Anyone hungry? Well, we were!
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| It's definitely a talent to be able to shear these animals, this guy just chilled there like he was drunk or something |
Now, since I was doing all of the driving, Josh was free to do his car narcolepsy thing and we passed through a lot of beautiful country that went undocumented. One thing I did capture was my attempt to wake him up by slowly turning up the music when they were playing a song he loves.
Yeah, it didn't work. He was OUT.
A few hours later, we had finally made it to our next stop for the day. Hell. More specifically, Hell's Gate Geothermal Reserve. I have a bunch of photos and videos yet to show you from the reserve, but I'm going to finish it at a later date so I can finally get this one out! I hope you enjoyed the videos so far because I have a bunch more where they came from ;0)