Our first stop this morning was Hobbiton, where they filmed the Shire scenes in the Hobbit and LOTR movies. The set was literally 15 minutes from where we stayed. It was a pretty cool tour and I got a lot of pictures. The property is still a working farm and privately owned by the Alexander family. It was a guided tour and they took us around all of the Hobbit holes. Each of them had one room inside but we could only go into one of them. There wasn't much to it inside, we just jumped in and took a picture. When they built the set for the LOTR they built it with cheap materials and then took it down, but when they rebuilt it for the Hobbit series they built it permanently so it would look more authentic and so they could continue doing tours. So all of the Hobbit holes were built with real materials, and the gardens and trees were all real, with the exception of the tree on the top of Bagend, Bilbo's house. In the first series they had brought in a tree and then removed it, and since it was such a distinct tree they needed an exact replica for the hobbit series, only 60 years younger looking. So they built it and attached each leaf individually. Apparently after they put it up they realized the color of the leaves didn't look right, so they then spray-painted each leaf a darker green.
They also described a scene from the books where the younger hobbits would sit under the plum trees and eat the plums and stack the pits. But since plum trees are too big for hobbits, they planted other fruit trees like apples and pears. Then for the movie they plucked every fruit and leaf off the trees and wired on plums and leaves so they would look like plum trees. All this work for only a couple of seconds of screen time, and then it got cut into the extended edition!
Then they ended the tour by giving us some time to explore the pub and enjoy a free beverage. They had a few beers, an apple cider, and a non-alcoholic ginger beer. So Matt and I had our first alcoholic beverage of the trip in the pub in Hobbiton!
Then we drove back to Rotorua to check out the thermal park. We went to Kuirau Park and checked out all of the thermal pools there. It was interesting- some were very clear water and others were more green or yellow, and others were gray and opaque. All of them were clearly really hot and bubbling. And they gave off a very sulphuric odor. There was also a pool where you could put your in feet. It was very hot; it was mostly pleasant except for where my legs are sunburnt.
Then we drove back to Auckland for our last night on the North Island. We have an airbnb close to the airport since we have a really early flight in the morning. The airbnb is really small but the hosts are super friendly. After we checked in and visited with them a bit we went to downtown Auckland for dinner. We found a place called Elliot's stables which was pretty good. It was essentially a fancy food court where you could go in and everyone could order from a different restaurant and they would bring you your food. It was a neat area, so we walked around a bit too.
Early and busy day tomorrow. Night, all!
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