Day 15 - One Ring to Rule Them All

​We packed up the van in Whitianga early this morning and had a delicious breakfast at a nearby cafe.


It was then a fairly lengthy journey south, albeit with some nice scenery - New Zealand is certainly very hilly and there are a lot of cows! We also had the pleasure of some songs from the trip playlist that we have all curated. I refuse to apologise for my choices that may or may not have included Three Lions (as my ‘home’ song) and Reach by S Club 7 as my guilty pleasure!

We arrived at Hobbiton - the set from the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit movies - late morning and had time for some lunch and a look around the gift shop before joining our tour. 

The tour was, quite simply, brilliant. With Hannah (from the UK) as our guide, we learned lots about how the films were shot (the idea of forced perspective was really interesting, and helped to explain why there were different sizes of doors!) and to see the level of detail was amazing. It is crazy to think that Hobbiton is only actually in the six films for a total of 14 minutes, yet so much care was put into the set. Crazier still is the fact that the set was actually destroyed after the LotR Triology was filmed, and the set had to be remade for the Hobbit films.



Anyway, there were a LOT of photo opportunities! Firstly, of the various hobbit hole exteriors, and then of Bag End (home of Frodo and Bilbo!), and then of the Party tree and Party field.


We then had the opportunity to go into a hobbit hole. These were not used in the films, but were SO. MUCH. FUN!


Finally, we went to the Green Dragon Inn (New Zealand’s busiest pub!) and I enjoyed a ginger beer. 


It was then time to say goodbye to Hobbiton and get back in our van to Raglan on the west coast. We had a little free time, that I used to go geocaching, before then going to the wharf to go on a harbour cruise.

It was supposed to be a sunset cruise with fish and chips. We got the fish and chips, but the sun was less keen on making an appearance!


Still, it was a great tour of the harbour area, and I was even allowed to drive the boat for a bit. The captain took some photos of me on my phone while I ‘drove’ but one of the photos below is a valuable lesson of why you should not trust others with your phone camera!


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