Hobbiton and Rotorua

We left in the morning for Hobbiton, which was 45 min driving from Tauranga. Finally on the very last km we passed a sign directing us to the Alexander farm, where the filming of the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit had taken place (concerning many scenes of the Shire, especially Bilbo’s and Frodo’s house, Bagend). We were a little late so we had to take some effort to get through the crowds and to the cashier to get our timed tickets and to hop on the shuttle bus. It took us to the actual Hobbiton site and our very enthusiast guide for today explained a lot about the filming. She told us that she went on a tour herself, earlier being no big fan of the books or films, but when she went she was absolutely stunned and very glad to hear that there was a job offer as a guide and so she took it on immediately. That evening there was a special event, where she and all the other people working at the site could dress up as hobbits and she was really excited about that. We made our little tour winding up the hill, through the garden and along 40 hobbit doors. Only a few of them can be opened a tiny bit so that actors could have pretended to stand in front of their house and walk inside. But there is nothing to see inside. The interior scenes have all been filmed in the studio. Finally, after a few drops of rain our very excited group (Tina, me and a few men who actually looked like hobbits, one even brought his hobbit pipe) approached the green door of Bagend on top of the hill. We all tried to be the first one at the door – and I succeeded. So I got several photos where nobody (but eventually me) stands in the way – wheehee! We continued our way down the hill towards Sam’s yellow door, the party tree and the lake on which other side you could spot the mill, a stone bridge and the newly built Green Dragon pub, where we all received a beer, cider or ginger beer before being driven back to the car park. The tour was probably not worth 75$ (55 EUR), but it was totally worth seeing the site. How many times are you in New Zealand? – so do it! When we walked back to the car a very heavy rain poured down on us, so we quickly hopped in and drove back to Tauranga, neglecting all possible rainy sites on the way (waterfalls and such). The weather in Tauranga was way better but we were a bit tired so we just hung around a bit, had a snack and then decided to go to the cinema to watch Fifty Shades, simply because we were curious what all the fuss was about. I can tell you: I rolled my eyes 10 min into the film and it did not get better. The story was absolutely stupid – the explicit scenes were nicely filmed, but having 90 min of stupid film then even 8 min of mediocre interesting sex scenes doesn’t make the whole thing any better. What a waste of money! The hostel owner promised us to book beds for Tina and me for the next night at a hostel in Rotorua, Blarney’s Rock, and because she was friends with its owner it was cheaper for us. So in the morning we dropped Itai off at a car seller market nearby (I hope he could find a new car to replace the old one) and drove on to Rotorua. This time the trip was quite short, just about an hour and a half. But when we approached Rotorua we noticed a funny smell – it smelled like rotten eggs... Sulphur being set free because of the volcanic activity all around town was the cause. We drove directly to the hostel and dropped our stuff. As we did not feel very much like doing stuff we hung around at the hostel a bit, then walked to a shopping center nearby where there was a food court. Our Chinese food was just awful, so we had to stop by a little café to get coffee and a delicious carrot cake to get another taste on our tongues. Afterwards, still feeling horribly ‘flat-tired’ I spotted a shop with big sizes that sold bikinis. Yeees, hard to get, so I had to try them on. And I succeeded: I found myself a beautiful blue and white bikini. I had to directly wear it that night when we kicked ourselves in the butt and drove twenty minutes to the infamous Waikite thermal pools. Not many people seemed to know about this fantastic place in the middle of rolling green hills and steamy hot water, where there are 6 hot/warm pools to be hung in as long as you want to for 15$. We enjoyed it a lot and only when our skin got very wrinkled did we get out of the silk-smooth water to head back to the hostel. There was a horrible smell in our room, which came from next the door from a guy with disgustingly smelly feet (even when washed they stunk horribly!!!). Every time we entered the room we held our breath until I just told him. I didn’t mean to be rude, I’d rather found it rude that he entered a bedroom and let 7 other people enjoy the benefits of his podal extremities. The next morning we went off to visit Waimangu Volcanic Valley, which we had booked earlier for 10.30 am. We were on time – but in the wrong place. The guy at the cashier told us: no, girls, this is not Waimangu, that’s a 20 min drive from here. Whoops! But it didn’t take us as long and they still let us in for the booked time (which we had gotten a discount for). The experience consisted of a 3-hour-walk along a few lakes and craters and ending at a big lake. The walk was simply amazing. It took us along red-coloured Southern Crater, the very steamy Echo Crater with a hot lake with white steam clouds all over it, which had a particular rock with steam coming out of it, that reminded me a lot of Winnetou’s testament lake. After this we climbed up to the stunningly turquoise Inferno Crater. We were very lucky to see it in turquoise as it is grey most of the time. We continued along a very hot and steamy stream with some sulphur plateaus up to the Wabrick Terrace which looked like a giant orange dessert with powdered sugar on top. After continuing along the stream for a while we reached the big Lake Rotomahana, where a bus took us back to the entrance. We had to speed up a little now to be in time for our second booked attraction of the day: Whakarewarewa – The Living Maori Village. We had a booked entrance ticket for 2pm but also did not want to miss the performance, which only took place twice a day and was starting at 2pm sharp. So we hurried up through the village to the performance area and saw a very cool and also funny show. The actors had a lot of fun themselves, singing traditional songs and also doing a war dance with bulging eyes and outstretched tongues, which is supposed to scare the enemy (and it does I am sure). Some Maori I have seen on the street are so huuuuge, this alone is very intimidating if you imagine them being in a war with another tribe. One guy in the supermarket I swear was 4 times the size of me, which means 2x2 in a square of Danni. That’s a lot of person… ;-) But back to the village. The performance was fantastic and we were able to take a few photos in the end with a very bad looking warrior, who normally looked very sympathetic when not showing his tongue and his weapon. After this we wandered around on our own for a little while before taking the official guided tour at 3pm. Our guide explained a lot about living in the village with all the natural steam around. She told us that they all could not smell the funny rotten smell anymore. I suppose you get used to it like you get used to a dung heep on a farm when you are living there. They had lots of different hot springs, where they cooked their vegetables in and some small steam huts, where all the families in the village could steam their meat and vegetable meals. And they still do that nowadays. Therer was also a bathing area with water about 60°C hot. She told us that most non-villagers who were not used to the temperatures there could not stand it but the villagers were used to it. In the back of the village was a big geyser, which erupted when we stood at the look-out. It was not very high but still with a double-fountain and a lot of steam. In the village stood a lot of carved wooden figures of Maori men and women in traditional costumes, many sticking their tongues out or displaying their traditional weapons. The guide told us that they protected the village from evil spirits. There were also some mud pools blubbering away loudly and looking like chocolate pudding exploding. Fascinating. When we got back to the hostel we again weren’t up to do much, just a little supermarket stuff buying and talking to other nice people in the hostel (and avoiding the feet guy). The next morning we checked out at 10 am (as usual) and drove off in the direction of Lake Taupo, which is just an hour further. On the way there was the famous thermal wonderland called Wai-o-Tapu. The woman at the entrance told us that the full walk would only last 1.5 hours. But we did 3 hours about it. Okay, we stopped a lot for photos but you also sometimes just stand somewhere and stare at the hot bubbles or the steam rising or the sulphur built-up sites, which all look so fascinating you can’t just walk on like it is nothing. I have never seen anything like all this volcanic activity in my life. When you enter the site you first (and last – as this is a circle tour) pass a big field of small craters with steam rising, black bubbles (called ‘the devil’s ink pots’), a yellow-green lake and the main attraction: ‘the artist’s palette’. This is a huge area covered with the tiniest layer of water, with small blue and yellow holes in it, a wide white area and the ‘champagne pool’, a big dark blue hot water hole with a huge amount of steaming rising from it covering the whole area and the edges of this hole all being colored a bright rusty red. Everywhere are signs that it is all too hot to step onto, so please would everybody stay on the path. In the back of the walk area was another two huge blue and green lakes and an area of more bubbling and colouring. Wow! The only snag was that everybody who was coming to Rotorua was going here so we had to pass a lot of other fascinated people on the way.

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