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!!!

Day 2: Temple and Glow Worm Caves

This Day started early but it felt so good to get a full nights sleep. Even though with the time difference we were waking up at 5am and feeling like it was time to go.

We headed out cause Tasha has us on a very tight schedule. Justified, we have some awesome plans for this day!

Our first destination was Hamilton, we wanted to do a session in the New Zealand Temple. Driving there we were not sure if the GPS was bringing us to the right place because we thought the temple would be in a more populated area but we were mostly driving through farmland. The area was beautiful though, there were green hills everywhere and they were sectioned off with real hedge rows! Like in England but greener!

We arrived at the temple just in time, the temple reminded me a lot of the temple in Switzerland but this one didn't have a Moroni on the top. The temple was really pretty inside too, Murals on the walls were all in high tones so it looked like you were walking in a misty tropical paradise. Absolutely beautiful.

Keeping to schedule, we headed toward Waitomo, as we drove we saw a Kiwi house along the way which was actually close to our hotel so we decided to go their tomorrow. Look forward to that :) We also stopped for lunch and tried food that is very popular in New Zealand. Dad got some fish and chips from this sketchy corner store and Mom and Tasha went to a Minced pie place. I also got something from the minced pie place. Normally I wouldn't go near a minced pie but mine had a nice dollop of mashed potato that made it look quite appetizing. Turned out really tasty too! We got a couple of caramel pie desserts which we all shared cutting them into quarters.

On the road, I am still amazed at how rural everything is, there are farmlands everywhere. With all kinds of animals. So many cows, I'm reminded of Idaho! There are even cows that look like oreo cookies because they are all black except for one large stripe down their middle. We also saw a ton of sheep, donkeys, pigs, chickens, and horses, and basically all the horses had raincoats on. A little weird but maybe they needed it.

We continued onto our journey and arrived at Waitomo Caves. This was amazing! We went to two caves the first was Ruakuri, and the second was the Glowworm Caves. Both were spectacular!

At Ruakuri, we were able to walk through these ancient cave system which had amazing rock formations. I like our guide, Sam, he was very down to earth. He shared a lot of great information including the story behind the cave's name:

 The cave's name means dog spirit cave; the story goes that a local Maori war party was passing the mouth of the cave when a group of dogs ran out and scared the group back to the village. The chief thinking that it wasn't a good thing that his war party would be scared so easily he sent the group back to kill the dogs and to bring them back. They did that and the chief skinned the dogs and created a cloak that he would wear when he went into battle. While wearing the cloak he never lost a battle. And when he passed away his remains and the cloak were returned to the cave entrance.

We continued in the cave where we got to see some unique rock formation, including curtain stalactites, coral stalagmites and our first glimpses of glow worms. Which are actually maggots that glow only because their poop has bio-luminesces and the reason they glow is because they want to lure other bugs up to them. Together they look like the night sky (but green) other little flies see that and fly up to them and then get caught it the maggot's silk string they let down. When their caught the maggot pulls them us and devours them by burrowing into the poor flies brains. Yeah, cute glow worms huh?

 Curtain stalactites

 

here you can see the strings (couldn't get a pic of the glow,sorry)

As we continued we got to a chamber called the 'pretties'; yeah very creative name but it was quite cool. Also side note, we were not allowed to touch anything! there was a $10,000 fine if we in any way damaged the formations. So look, don't touch!

After Ruakuri, we did the tour of the actually glow worm cave, the Waitomo Cave. And this one was cool! We started out walking into this huge chamber about the size of a cathedral and they would actually have concerts in the place because it was so good at that sound thingy. Whatever lets get to the glow worm part. We had to get in a boat and we were told we had to be very quiet. Our guide, Chris (yeah new guide, the caves had two different owners) pulled us along the underground river, we were in pitch blackness except for the millions of glow worms above us. It was amazing, they were covering the ceiling and it was so quiet and dark. There were a couple of areas we had to duck to get through which just made that much more an adventure. I tried to take pictures of it but yeah they just turn out black. Sorry.

We were the last group that went through and it was a good thing too cause, it started to downpour again, and I mean buckets of water was coming out of the sky. We headed to our hotel and looked for a place to eat. We finally found a Chinese take out. I got some good wonton soup. We also went to the grocery store, one of the few places that doesn't close so early. I was able to find Manuka honey, which is a New Zealand specialty. It has a different taste to it, kinda tart. Also we went crazy buying up medicine, I'm still sick at this point and have had enough of it.

Till tomorrow, Adventure is out there!

Day 1: LA to New Zealand!!!!

So as excited as I was for this trip it started out kinda miserable. I got a cold right before, I tried to get over it but it just wouldn't let me go.

We made the most of it though and Tasha and I did our best not to focus on that. I flew in early to LA from Seattle and since our flight out wasn't till nine at night, Tasha and I had fun in LA. We went to Hollywood Blvd., starting out at the Wax museum where there were iconic figures we can pose with. We also took a open bus tour of LA's most famous locations and Actors. We saw where Elvis Presley and other big name celebrities lived, most of their homes were surrounded by bushes so that you couldn't see in very well. They were still beautiful big homes which was cool to see their design choices, there were even a few homes that were amazing just to look at. One home looked like a ice cream cake, very much in the style of Gaudi. Another home we saw was the house they used in Hocus Pocus and as odd as it was to see a witch's hut among the Beverly hills it was one of my favorites, it had a freakin' moat, who couldn't like that? Also we went up to the hills to see the Hollywood sign which is a must.

After the tour we walked around the Blvd. a bit, which was fun to see the stars on the ground and see the Chinese theatre. Got our free chocolate from Ghirardelli and then went to this amazing place which has cheap cookie sundaes which were a dream come true. Only three bucks for a cookie of your choice with ice cream of your choice on top! The line was long but totally worth it! I got a classical chocolate chip with peanut butter cup ice cream on top. So delicious! Despite the fact that I couldn't smell it tasted great!
 

We enjoyed our cookie sundaes and cookie sandwich then went and picked up Mom and Dad from the airport. We got dinner quickly then headed for the airport. Which was always a nightmare, but because of my cold it was worse! I got a freakin' bloody nose while going through security! So here is me looking at the ceiling holding a bloody napkin to my nose while handing over my passport, I was so afraid they were going to bar me because of some worldwide health issue. But the TSA guy was very nice even giving me advice to keep my head up and go get a beer. Yeah, I'm Mormon but I was grateful for his light heartedness.

We got on the plane with no issues and started our long flight to New Zealand. Movie selection was ok but my sinuses were having a hay day and did not let me sleep well. Nasty, just nasty, but I survived and we arrived in Fiji, for a quick layover then continued with a three hour flight to New Zealand.
 
We landed in Auckland around noon and immediately caught a shuttle to where we could rent a car. They were driving on the wrong side of the road! and the stirring wheel was also on the wrong side, so weird but that's just how they drive... As we were being driven out first thing I noticed was just how lush everything was. There were green hills everywhere! I was told it was their winter time but everything was still so green!
 

We got to our car rental place and while Dad and Tasha were sorting out our car it just started raining and not that light rain you get, it was a torrential downpour. But it only rained like that for about 15 minutes and then let up. By the time Tasha and Dad returned it was bright and sunny again. This became the norm for New Zealand while we were there.
 So the car we rented turned out to be bright green and purple, I think they made it those colors to either alert the other drivers of our presence or to always make sure we will never lose the car in a parking lot. It worked, we never lost the car. Occasionally we saw other people renting from the same business so their cars were as ghastly as ours but hey we waved and cheered each other on when we passed :)

Our first stop was Kelly Tariton's Aquarium. This was a cool aquarium because it showcased a lot of native species of fish that we of course wouldn't be able to see anywhere else. there was a shark tank tunnel that had a moving pathway so all you had to do was stand and it would take you through the shark tanks. In the tank was this really cool bottom dwelling shark called the Woebegone Shark, it was very cool to watch.

They also had long finned eels, massive lobster (seriously they were the size of basketballs), king penguins with their chicks and one of my favorites was the elephant shark. I didn't even know those thinks existed, but yeah! Elephant sharks! Tasha found some cool stamp game which was entertaining to look for and we got to go through an arctic expedition showcase which included this tunnel that was made to look like packed ice but they had it turning in a circle so while you walked through it you couldn't go straight. The whole place was really fun!

 We finished the Aquarium and headed to downtown Auckland where there was a free Art Museum. They showcased Maori portraits and contemporary art. The portrait were fun to see but I didn't care that much for the contemporary art. The museum had multiple areas but I think the main gallery area was the best with a overlooking balcony. Everything was painted white, which seemed to be a theme  of a lot of the architecture there.

We stopped at an ATM to pull out money and I found their money really cool. Every piece of currency has a bird on it. My favorite is their dollar coin which has a Kiwi on it.

By that time it was getting colder and later. Apparently everything closes at 5pm, we were all pretty tired from the flight still and hungry. When we got to our motel, that's when we noticed the early hours of closure. It was very difficult to find somewhere we could eat. We ended up going to a kebab place and sharing a dish. I didn't share I was still feeling crappy.

We got back to the motel and turned on the heater and passed out on the surprisingly comfy bed.

Not a bad start to the trip, more fun to come!

Adventure is out there!