The Shire

So, just as a disclaimer for the blog entries: 1. Internet is not always as easy to come by as it is in the States. Plus we are limited by bandwidth and not by time. 2. I’m not getting full night’s sleep and combined with a full day of driving and exciting activities, this makes for a tuckered out Diony at the end of the day. If my entries aren’t prompt, this is why.


After waking up at a decent hour at the Raglan Farmstay (aka, noisy hostel), we grabbed a quick continental breakfast which was laid out for the guests on the kitchen table. We put together a muesli type cereal, toast pieces with passionfruit curd (serious yum) and peanut butter and honey, plus orange juice and a banana. Once we ate our fill, we paid, packed up the car and drove into town to top off the petrol tank and grab some groceries (feijoa juice!). We were then on our way to the Hobbiton Farm Tour outside of Matamata a short 1.5 hours drive away.

The sunny weather made for a fantastic drive along the curving roads through the green hills. Surprisingly, with all those curves, I haven’t gotten carsick yet even though I’m the acting navigator. So, this time around we got lots more pictures and got to “ooo” and “ahh” over all the beautiful valleys and vistas. Much of the drive is spent talking about how we’d build a house on the hill or another. The landscapes are just “unreal” as Jacob said yesterday.

After all the stops for pictures, we made it to Hobbiton Movie Set tour location around 12:15. We grabbed tickets for a 12:57 tour so we could partake in some lunch at the Shire’s Rest café. It was your typical tourist trap food fare, but satisfying enough, nonetheless. The place has changed so much since I was last there 2 years ago. Last time, it was a much smaller operation with minivans to take people to the set location. Now they use huge tour buses to haul all those people over. However, when I compare what is actually left of the set this time around, it’s easy to see why it’s a major attraction. There was no paperwork that we had to sign to not show our pictures, so they will be readily available at some point. The whole experience was wonderful. Really, I don’t think I could properly describe all of it without taking up a great deal of time and space to do so. ¬¬¬We took so many pictures, much of it for personal reference. The set is basically in tack as it will be shown in the movie “The Hobbit”. This includes gardens, paths, and fully designed hobbit hole exteriors. All that was missing was a few hobbits going about their business in the Shire. We were allowed to open a few of the doors and stand in the doorways for great pictures opportunities.

Once we were back at Shire’s Rest Café, we did a little shopping at the gift shop. Jacob picked up a beautiful merino and possum wool cat and scarf that look stellar on him. We also picked up some lanolin crème which seems like it’ll work wonders on dry skin. I guess I should mention that the Hobbiton set is on the Alexander farm, which is still a fully function sheep farm. I even got to feed some sheep before we left.
We got back in the car and figured out where we were going to stay and made our way south down to Turangi, which is on the southern end of Lake Taupo. The hills became less green with more rock outcroppings and intermittent thick forests that we think are for logging purposes since all of the trees were the same height. We made it into Turangi after 6pm and grabbed our room from the Parkland Motor Lodge. The room is a typical motel room but it was clean, quiet and cheaper than the previous night’s accommodations. Plus, there are fluffy kitties roaming around the area. Dinner was at the lodge’s restaurant, which was a decent fare. Jacob has more seafood and I finally got myself some lamb. Good but not the best ever, as it was a tad overcooked from where I like it.

Alright, that’s enough from me as we need to start our day here and go see some volcanoes!