24. Disembarking, glow worm caves, Exploring Hobbiton

The only picture I took of our cabin

We bade farewell to our Princess cruise ship home and disembarked to learn there is no Uber XL in Auckland only regular 4-person Ubers, WTF! Since there were 5 of us plus luggage, we had to take a 9 passenger van to the airport to pick up our rental car. It was only 125 NZD (so 68USD) which isn’t bad for a 35 minute ride. Apex car rental was terrific and soon we were all set to go with our RAV 4. From there Nancy agreed to drive first (they drive on the opposite side of the road so it takes a lot more concentration than home) and we proceeded to the glow worm caves.

great pizza from Huhu

Our tour was at 3:15 and we got to the area around 12:00 so we had plenty of time to kill. Chris found a great little spot for lunch, the Huhu Café, and we split a pizza with chicken, bacon, carmelized pears, sundried tomato, and chili tomato jam. Yum! They also had a deliciously sweet Peach Bomb (cider?) by Hawke’s Bay that I will need to look for back at home. We took a walk along the river near the glow worms, shopped in the store, and got some refreshments (tea, ice cream) until our tour was ready. Almost all of the people who work here are descendants of the guy who discovered the cave in the late 1800’s. He was a Maori chief. They started doing tours for 16 years until the government took over administration of the cave for the next 80 odd years. Eventually the rights were returned to his family. They all work here as guides, or serve food, or work in the gift shop. As with most European colonies, many horrible things were done to the natives and illnesses were brought over that decimated them, but New Zealand seems to have done a better job of handling the recovery from that.

super delicious Hawkes
Bay Peach Bomb

Awaiting our glow worm tour

Our waitomo glow worm guide Steven

The tour was fabulous! Our guide Steven was very funny and entertaining. These little worms eat insects. They hang up to 70 sticky strands each thinner than a human hair, then emit a glow to attract insects and catch them on the sticky threads which they can individually draw up to their body and eat. We weren’t allowed to take pictures in the main cave area, but we could just as we were leaving the caves and I have one that turned out fairly well.

On the boat portion of our Waitomo Glow Worm tour, me with a goofy grin

Glow worms

dinner at the Pig and Whistle

It was another 2 hours to our place in Rotorua. We picked a great house from VRBO! It was right on the lake with a couple of kayaks and right near all the sights we were going to in Rotorua. It had 3 bedrooms for the 5 of us and 2 bathrooms. It also had a blessed washer and dryer, which we were much in need of, though we had trouble getting the dryer to work. Luckily each bathroom had a heated towel rack and between that, the drying rack, and laying stuff out in the hot sun we managed. That night we had a great dinner at the historic Pig & Whistle. Chris and I both got the lamb salad, which was phenomenal! I’d be happy eating that every day.

Amazing lamb salad

sunset at the Rotorua house

Hobbiton!

Our second day in Rotorua we had tickets to the Behind the Scenes Tour at Hobbiton. Back in 1998, when they went looking for the right spots to film Lord of the Rings, they helicoptered around New Zealand. Their attention was drawn to this gigantic pine tree and the area around it was perfect for Hobbiton. The land was part of the Alexander farm. After shooting the film, they tore down most of the temporary facades of the Hobbit hole houses and life on the farm went back to normal. Except…they started seeing people dressed as wizards and hobbits wandering around their farm looking for the filming site.

Hobbiton view from the top with the giant pine tree that made then consider the site

Here is a video clip someone put on YouTube with the scene at Hobbiton from Lords of the Rings (you can skip the first 1:30). The scene ends at Bilbo's house which you will see in my pics below, along with several others from the clip:

Bag End 2004

Some of the bottom layers were still awaiting destruction delayed by heavy rains and they became a huge attraction for tourists. The Alexanders arranged for these to remain and started running tours for folks to see them. They expected two dozen tourists a month and instead had over 12,000 in the first year! Diane and her husband came here in 2004 and took pictures, which I will try to include. Interestingly, this influx of Lords of the Rings tourism (aka “the Frodo economy”) has benefited all of New Zealand creating many jobs and selling tons of local products like the wool cloth used in the movie cloaks and healing facial oils used by actress Liv Tyler.

inside a house 2004

One of the hobbit holes

Almost 10 years later when they were making The Hobbit and filmmaker Sir Peter Jackson came back to the Alexander farm, the Alexanders made a deal with him to make the structures permanent and jointly open Hobbiton as a tour site. They did a good job. The place looks just like a real little town…a town of Hobbit Holes that is. People working there lovingly take care of the grounds with details like making sure the tall grasses are cut in waves, just like they appear in the movie. We got to enter a hobbit house with several rooms completely fitted out with a crackling fire, bunkbeds, and a desk just like the one where Bilbo Baggins wrote his memoirs.

entrance to Hobbiton

Bilbo Baggins home

writing memoirs in the hobbit hole

at a Hobbit hole

Hanging in front of the fireplace in a Hobbit hole

Here are some pictures from Diane of "then" and "now":

Bag End 2004

Bag End now

Hobbit hole 2004

same Hobbit hole now

the lake and site of pub and millhouse 2004

the lake, pub, and millhouse now

inside a house 2004

inside house now

the shire 2004. Notice the tree above Bag End is cut down

the shire now, complete with fake tree above Bag End made of metal, foam, rubber and palstic

having a drink at the
Green Dragon Inn

After that we got a drink at the Green Dragon Inn and they served us a hobbit feast at the millhouse (these are in the clip when they cross the bridge going from the millhouse towards the inn). They sat us at this huge banquet table with tons of food, more than we could possibly finish, though we made a good effort (all that cruise training on how to stuff ourselves!). We were relieved to learn that workers are allowed to take the leftovers home and the rest goes to the pigs so nothing is wasted.

Green Dragon Inn

the Millhouse

our amazing Hobbit feast!

Hobbit feast banquet table

Out on the lake

When we got back to the house we used the kayaks. There were tons of black swans including black swan babies in the lake. I tried to get close to some in my kayak but they can swim faster than I can paddle! It was great being out on the lake, very peaceful with nothing around you but water and swans. After a bit, Audrey and I turned back to the house and paddled home. Except the house we thought was the right house wasn’t the right house.

black swans on Lake Rotorua

They all start looking a little alike out there and we hadn’t gotten landmarks before we left. Additionally things look different from the water side than they do from the shore side. In our case, the very obvious shed by the water was all but hidden behind trees. While the paddling was not all that taxing, the lake is very, very big and I couldn’t remember how far we had gone so I was beginning to worry a little. It had just occurred to me to try using google maps to locate our position relative to the house when Audrey found it!

others going out to kayak from our house