April 19, 2019 / Auckland & Hobbiton
From Auckland, there are several 1/2 day and full day conducted tours available. My choice was to visit Hobbiton, the locale for Shire in Lord of the Rings and Hobbit movie series. My tour also included a visit to Waitomo glow worm caves making it a full day excursion.
It was good to pick a small group tour. Our tour guide who also doubled as our van driver, Nick, was funny and knowledgeable. From Auckland, Matamata, the small town near which Hobbiton is located was a 2-hour drive. The ride was scenic with lush greenery along most of the way.
The story goes that the farmlands of the Alexander family was selected during an aerial scouting for the perfect location of Shire. And since then, life has never been the same for the Alexander family!
For LOTR series, the sets were made with temporary material which was torn down at the end of the shooting. When they decided to film the Hobbit series, they had to redo the sets, but they did it with permanent structures that is now a tourist attraction with LOTR movie fans.
The tour of the movie sets is a walking tour. You will get to see the 44 hobbit homes including Bag End – Bilbo and Frodo’s home, Samwise Gamgee’s home with its distinctive yellow door, the bridge over which Gandolf drives his cart by in LOTR first movie, the party tree & the meadow where Bilbo’s eleventy one birthday celebrations are held and more. The place was breathtakingly scenic and no wonder Peter Jackson fell in love with it when he was looking for a suitable location! The 2-hour walking tour also includes a stop at the Green Dragon Inn, where visitors can enjoy a complimentary glass of beer or a non-alcoholic drink.
The attention to detail in the movie sets simply blew my mind away. Clothes lines drying tiny hobbit sized clothes, small furniture, (*spoiler alert*) the realistic tree on top of Bag End, an entirely artificial tree, made for the Hobbit series to look identical to the tree that was there in the LOTR movies… the list is long. All these details only will make the visit all the more enjoyable for LOTR / Hobbit fans.
From Hobbiton, we drove to Waitomo glow worm caves. Photography was prohibited inside the caves.
Waitomo glow worm cave was an interesting experience. We descended down the caves that had limestone structures, stalagmites (columns growing up from the ground), stalactites (columns growing down from the ceiling) and finally, glow worms. The bio-luminescence from the larvae attracts insects from the river flowing beneath the caves serving as food for the larvae. The several minutes I got to spend in a boat inside the cave in complete silence under the glow of the worms was one of a kind experience.
On our final rest stop on the way back to Auckland, I got to enjoy hokey pokey ice cream second day in a row. I also tried the kiwi fruit pavlova flavor. Note to self: stay with hokey pokey in future.
My first impressions of NZ was what I got from Auckland – a pedestrian friendly city with excellent public transportation – trains, buses and ferries. The country is investing another NZ$ 35 billion in infrastructure improvements including the underground railway in Auckland.
Passport control was a breeze with an e-passport, just had to answer a few questions in a machine before proceeding for the mandatory customs/agriculture inspection. I’ll leave you with an amusing bit of information. Jack fruit in any form – fresh, processed, dried – is not allowed into NZ.
Auckland has much more to offer visitors. The war memorial, bungy jumping and other thrill sports, excursions to nearby Rangitoto and Waiheke islands and more.