Day 59 – Taupo to Auckland – PANCAKE DAY!

Originally Rach, Charli and I were going to stay another day in Taupo but there wasn’t any room at Base so they decided the night before to leave today instead. I decided to join them, as there was plenty of space on the bus, enough space for two seats each as well!

Our first stop just an hour up the road was in Rotorua. Before we arrived there we stopped just outside in Waiotapu to see the geothermal pools. The sign said ‘Acid waters attack and dissolve adjoining ground to digest many minerals in the rock, forming viscous mud pools.’ Basically the ground bubbles away and smells like sulphur. We dropped off and picked up people in Rotorua but I still managed to have two seats, WOO, GO ME!

Our lunch stop was in Matamata (near Hobbiton) but the three of us had been prepared and made lunch before we left meaning we were the guards of the bus as the driver left us in charge.

It was official, Kiwi Experience was over, our final bus arrived in Auckland at about 3 in the afternoon but it took us about an hour to check in because their system was down which was just a bit annoying. We didn’t end up in the same room but at least we were on the same floor.  I went for a walk around town but most things were closing up by the time I got out. Today was Pancake Day but we actually fell asleep before pancakes were made so we’ll just have to do it another day instead.

Day 34 – Rotorua to Taupo

The bus departed just gone 9.30am and arrived at Te Puia just down the road. This place is a thermal park with boiling mud, geysers and other things, some people got off here to have a look whilst the rest of us went over to Tongariro National Park to go on another of Bridget’s lovely walks. This walk was just under 5k and seemed to go uphill for a long time. She didn’t tell us we were doing this so it wasn’t much fun in flipflops!

Back on the bus we head to Te Puia to pick up the others and then we are on our way to Taupo. The journey wasn’t too far but the weather still hadn’t brightened up that much. Just before we reached Taupo we stopped at Huka Falls to check out the pretty amazing views. The falls are 11m high and are on Waikato river.

 I spent the rest of the day just wondering around and checking out what Taupo has to offer. I walked past a curry house and couldn’t resist, I just love it so much! The portions were very big meaning I had enough left over for another meal, so they put it in a takeaway container for me, that’s tomorrow’s dinner sorted.

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.