Day 3: Hobbiton!!!!!

Best Day Ever!!!

So we started the day off by going to the Kiwi House we saw yesterday. That's one nice thing about planning your own vacation there is always room for a change up or a fun addition.

This place was fun! It was a bird zoo basically, the first thing we saw was a real kiwi. It was a specked Kiwi, she was so cool looking. They are nocturnal birds so I couldn't get any pictures but she was really active. running all over the place, she looked like a puppet or a really fuzzy muppet but she was real. We also got to see a brown Kiwi pop his head out of his cave and run over to say hello. So cute! There were also a lot of other unique and cool birds. I got to see a real King Fisher which I've always loved their coloring since college. Also a New Zealand falcon tried to eat Tasha's face. She was just trying to take a picture but the thing had other ideas, good thing fences exist. It flew right at her face! Anyways there were a lot of geckoes and ducks and parrots too. Even though it was raining a little it was really fun.

 This is when the hawk tried to attack Tasha's face

 King Fishers are the coolest!

 This is our attempt at taking a picture of the kiwi :P

Alright, the thing we've been waiting for: Hobbiton!!!

Oh it was the highlight of the trip, at least for me, hands down. While I watched the movies I always thought in the back of my mind that they had to color correct the landscape to make it that green, no no it was that green. And miraculously sunny! It was pouring on the way but as soon as we arrived, BAM! sun. Perfect conditions

There were 44 holes for us to see and they were all so well detailed and taken care of. We got to walk down and run down the road that Gandalf entered when first coming to the shire.

 

Each hobbit hole had a story and purpose. There was a baker shop with bread outside. A tool makers place, there were little gardens and even little clothes lines out with little clothes to dry. It was so magical. They even had two sizes of holes for the shooting, you had a normal people sized holes and hobbit sized holes too. We even got to go into one of them.  

Don't get your hopes up people, with movie magic all interior shot are done at the studio so most of the insides of the holes are none existent; the one we did go into was about the size of a closet and was not furnished. But who cares, I was in the Shire! I saw Bag End and even Sam Wise Gamgee's yellow hobbit hole.

Our guide, Karen, was taking us around and telling us all these very interesting information which we were all ignoring because pictures! Many times we had to run to catch up with the group. The end of the tour was at the Green Dragon Tavern, they built the place to for us to enter into and get a free drink. It was all in hobbit style and was so fun. We even got a free drink, the only non-alcoholic one was a Ginger beer which was very tasty. There was a gift shop which we took by storm, I held back though and only got a door mat, a Green Dragon mug, and a patch. It was so fun to see everything!

After the Shire we headed to Rotorua, along the way we saw a huge herd of Red Deer. why they are farming deer I have no idea.

So the first thing that we noticed while arriving in Rotorua was the smell. The place is very active and had many sulfur pits. It smelled of bad eggs. We went to see the Historic Bath house. It was in Tudor style and quite beautiful. It is a museum now but originally was opened to be a place of healing. But the natural hot springs reeked havoc on the plumbing and the place just couldn't make it work. It was fun walking through it and seeing all the bath rooms and Moari historical items. It was cool.

We got to our hotel and found that it had a mineral pool of it's own. so after a dinner of Indian food. we took a dip in the mineral pool and swam in the naturally heated water. But now my swimsuit smells of farts. :)

Fun Day!!!