New Zealand Trip Part 2, Hobbiton and Waitomo Caves Tour

June 21, Saturday

I set my alarm for 4:25 AM so I could get up and get ready so we could be downstairs to meet our shuttle at 6 AM. Our pick up time was between 6:10 AM and 6:15 AM but they said that you must be there by 6:10 AM. We had to wait a few minutes for the shuttle but not long. He picked us up in a big yellow Mercedes van that said Auckland Scenic and made about three or four more stops to pick up more people and then we were on the road. The guide's name is Jamie and he told us little facts throughout the drive. I found it interesting that there are 4.5 million people in all of New Zealand and 2 million people in Auckland so that's pretty amazing. He also said that there have 620 golf courses in New Zealand and that every town has their own. On the way back, he pointed out a golf course that Tiger Woods has gone to so it's a lot more popular now. Anyway, the drive was beautiful. This morning it was super foggy so we didn't get to see much for scenery but it was still a beautiful drive. 

Our tour guide pointed out the new Auckland New Zealand Temple on the way there and back.

We got to Hobbiton around 8:45 AM. Our tour started at 9:20 AM. So that was just enough time to go to the gift shop and get a magnet and go to the café and get a couple treats. I had to get a picture with Gandalf in the gift shop. 

We got a cronut and a caramel slice to share and they were amazing. 

Tour booklet

There was a bus to take us from the gift shop building to Hobbiton. Luckily, we were able to find seats on the right side of the bus like Jamie recommended. However, it didn't matter because with the fog, you couldn't see anything anyway. 

Hobbiton was absolutely amazing! I kept having to pinch myself that we were even there! Emily and I were so excited! We had so much fun! There are 38 hobbit hole doors and I'm pretty sure I got a picture of every single one. Our tour guide was Rob and he walked us around and he would stop and talk to us while we could take pictures. There were multiple tours going on and they had it pretty well organized. As we moved out of one area, the next group would move in. 

For one of the pictures, we could go into the Hobbit door and he took our picture. 

He told us some fun anecdotes about the movie along the way. Like the time that Sean Astin kept messing up takes because he was laughing when Gandolf's stunt double threw him down for the scene where he was eavesdropping. He also told us about the scene at the end of Return of the King where Samwise's daughter runs up and hugs him and it turns out that was actually his real daughter and she hadn't seen him in four days so it was all real. Things like that. It was so cool! 

Bag End, Bilbo Baggins' home

The tent in the distance is where the fireworks tent was in Fellowship of the Ring.

Toward the end, we got to go into one of the Hobbit holes and explore all around. It looks like a movie set. It wasn't actually used in the movie, but some of the movie makers helped set it all up and helped with getting the props and everything. 

View of the Green Dragon in the distance

Cute house near the Green Dragon

Eventually, we made our way to the Green Dragon where you could choose ginger beer or some other ales. Everyone got one free drink. Michael and Emily each got a ginger beer because everything else had alcohol. The guy was telling us that they give a free sample of stout as one of the options but that's the one thing you can't buy in the gift shop but the other two kinds you can. I just got some water. 

We sat and had our drinks and then we went outside. I took some pictures and sat on a bench next to the lake and enjoyed the scenery. 

There were some eels in the water. 

Emily walked over to a different part of the lake. Our guide was talking to us and he had to yell at a guy across the lake who stepped out onto the porch of the little house with the water mill. Then they gathered us all up and we went straight to our tour bus--the yellow one from this morning and not one of their green ones. Next it was off to the Waitomo Caves.

Beautiful views along the way 

Kiwi bird statue

We stopped for lunch on the way. I had a chicken and broccoli pie and a bacon and egg puff pastry. 

We thought this was funny. Andrew told us that they say this in Australia a lot.

Papa and Jonny went to Feed My Starving Children today and sent me the picture. They are having fun while we're gone. 

Entrance to the caves tour

We weren't allowed to take pictures until the end.

Our cave tour guide was kind of soft spoken but she told us some really cool things. She showed us the stalactites and stalacmites. She took us to the cathedral area that our guide kept telling us about where you could sing and hear the great acoustics. Our guide asked if anybody wanted to sing and nobody would volunteer so we all ended up singing "Happy Birthday" together. She told us that a lot of famous singers had sung in there, like Kenny Rogers, The Beatles, Katy Perry, and a couple others that I don't remember. She said that was just to name a few. She took us to a couple of different areas and then to the boats. I had read in multiple places that the boat tour was 45 minutes so we were pretty surprised when we were in and out of the boat in about 10 minutes. We thought we would see way more glowworms. Emily seemed disappointed and said that it was kind of underwhelming and I had to agree. As cool as it was and as glad as I am that we got to see it, we thought there would be more.

This is the view as we exited the cave. 

Once we got out of the boat, we were in this beautiful area.

I got myself a magnet and we got back on the bus again. 

We made one more bathroom stop along the way at some public toilets and the little gift shop next-door had some honey samples they were giving out. I tried some Manuka honey and it was gross. Then we got back on the tour bus for the trip back to Auckland. I took a ton of pictures of scenery along the way. There were so many times when the landscape was absolutely gorgeous and picturesque. 

I thought it was cool that they had sheep and cows grazing together in many places.

Hay bales

The striations on the hills were so interesting to me. Our tour guide said that those are made by the cattle. 

Michael says his favorite part of the day was the glowworms. Emily and I loved walking around Hobbiton the most. It took us until 6 PM to get back to the hotel. One thing we appreciated was that when we passed by the Auckland Temple, he pointed it out to everyone. It was one of the few things we could see this morning since it was so foggy but it was lit up beautifully. He said it was the Mormon temple and that it was only about a year old and that he thinks that you can go in there but he didn't seem sure about it. So when he dropped us off, I thanked him for mentioning it and told him that we were members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and that the temple was open for people to come see it during the open house, but now it's only open to members. He said his partner lives in Salt Lake City and she knows about all that stuff. 

Anyway, we went up to our room and put all of our stuff down. We decided to go to dinner at Burger Fuel because it was only 700 feet away so that was awesome. It was so cold in there. I don't like it that the restaurants leave their door open. The food was good, though.

Then we walked back to the hotel and she got all packed up and then we walked her to the bus. It's a nice downtown area. It's a very diverse city. We said goodbye to Emily and walked back to the hotel. 

It wasn't even 8 PM and it felt like it was midnight. It was a long, but wonderful, day!