Well, the second part of this blog post is long overdue. It only took a four-day weekend to find the time to complete it. Can't wait for June 18th....seven day weekends! On the last post, we left with geothermal parks around Rotorua, which is a fantastic area. I would have gladly stayed there longer, but I had a date with the Green Dragon. When a friend asked me what I was doing that day, I couldn't help myself from saying "I'm going on an adventure!"Hobbiton was a short-ish trip from the city and when I pulled up, I could only think of one thing: this place makes BOAT LOADS of money. For roughly $60, you could join a tour of 24 through Hobbiton. Tour buses (fully loaded) left every 15 minutes and tours ran from about 8 am to 6 pm. I haven't taken a math class in about a decade, but 'boat loads' seems like an appropriate sum. My boring business mind aside, Hobbiton was pretty spectacular. Kept in pristine condition, taking Gandalf's Crossing into Hobbiton was like entering the mythical Middle Earth itself. All of it ended (where else?) at the Green Dragon, where you were offered a pale ale, dark ale or ginger beer that is brewed specifically for Hobbiton. While tour guides worked like clockwork to ensure tours moved steadily throughout the Shire set, they had fantastic tidbits of information about the movie that would drop the jaws of any LOTR geek, myself included. Did you know that Peter Jackson insisted on four more Hobbit Holes being built on an adjacent hillside just in case the camera panned out and caught that hill in the background? As we'd say here: gila!
The rest of the trip was still pretty great, but it was much more relaxed. At this point, I was running pretty low on cash (No, I did not buy a replica of Gandalf's pipe for $120 at Hobbiton. Wasted wine money!), so I decided to forego the Bay of Islands north of Auckland and took the winding roads to Piha. Kitekite Falls, part of the Hillary Trail, was spectacular and immediately eased any doubts I had about changing my plans. Piha itself was a small, quiet beach town that was not overrun with tourists. Quite the change from the overcrowded Hot Water Beach on Mercury Bay. Anyone who plans to go there best claim their spot two hours before low tide or else....good luck.With my wallet empty and my knees rubbing my temples, I took my budget airline back to the Concrete Jungle. New Zealand was a wonderful experience which calls for a lot more time if you want to explore it probably. When high school teacher salaries rise to $150,000 in the States and we tack on another month of summer, I'd love to go back. Who knows? Maybe this bad boy will still be available for rent again....
My last month and a half will consist of Sports Day, documentation and final year exams. Such a joyous trio...though I plan on a lengthy Bali visit prior to being stateside by the end of June. Yeah, Bali...no big deal, right? Keep some diesel on ice for me, I'll certainly need it after this Indonesia muck. 'Til then!