Day 33 – Waitomo to Hobbiton to Rotorua!

My first check out where we had to strip the bed which is fine but I’ve got too many other things to carry to deal with that, so I took my bags to the bus and then went back to my room to take my bedding, key and crockery back.

I hopped on the bus and after about 5minutes we were at our small nature walk for the day called the Ruakuri Bushwalk. It was less challenging than day one but not as cool as yesterdays.

Our next and only stop was in Hobbiton. I was getting off here with some other people on the bus to do the tour and check out where Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit were filmed. I’m not the biggest LOTR fan in the world but I do love a good movie set and I had watched the last one again when I was in Perth. Our tour guide Daniel took us on the bus to the main site, which is over the road from the café/shop/ticket office. 

The Hobbit village was suppose to be a temporary structure and was built in 1999 out of ply and polystyrene. After filming they were to come back in and take it all down but the weather changed and they never got back so they made it into a small tour of just a few hobbit houses. They then fully rebuilt it in 2009 but this time all 44 hobbit houses are permanent wooden structures, including an artificial tree that was made out of steel and silicon, which is the big tree you see about Bilbo Baggins house.

We got to see where they have a big party and how most of those shots were filmed with children to make them look hobbit size. Daniel also told us about how other shots were filmed to make the hobbits seem smaller than the other characters. It was actually really interesting and I enjoyed the experience quite a lot. The photo below shows Sam’s house which you see in the final film when his wife and kids and waiting outside for him.

The Green Dragon pub was just an exterior when filming but was made into an actual pub after all the film crew all left, so at the end of our tour we were offered a free drink at the pub which was cool.

The Hobbiton crew then drove us to meet everyone else and for our night in Rotorua. It was about an hour away but the drive wasn’t too bad. We are staying at Base hostel and luckily when I arrived I got put in a room with the two London girls I’ve been hanging around with the last few days.

I went and cook dinner, which took FOREVER! Probably the worst stove I have ever used, it took about 45minutes to cook some cauliflower, noodles, onion and pepper… ridiculous! We then all went over to the Lava Bar where some of us had to go and change our shoes because we weren't allowed to wear Flip flops?! Stupid rule. Anyway, it turned out to be a pretty fun night and a great first night to party with everyone.