Southern Belle Matamata

... However, I did get my picture taken with Gollum whose statue is situated in the middle of the town.
Yesterday I was greeted at the Matamata bus station by Jan, a long time friend of Joan and David, who are themselves long time friends of my family and with whom I am staying for a couple days in Matamata. Joan and David were at a meeting all day for one of the many groups, clubs and organizations they belong to. Jan took me to her place and we spent the ...

... told us there was a string of robberies and they were looking for people who "looked out of place." Well we unfortunately fit that description perfectly! Luckily the officer instantly recognized us as two tourists and certainly not thieves. He chatted with us for a few minutes about WWOOFing and Massachusetts, introduced himself (Neil, nice guy) and then sent us on our way. We then proceeded to Hobbiton with all the stolen goods safely in our trunk.
Matamata, North Island, New Zealand newzeas

... reverse. Last night we finished it – watching the first one – to
prepare for today's activity and our last one (yet perhaps most
anticipated) in NZ: Hobbiton!


Place: Matamata (pronounced meta-meta)
but more widely known as the town where the Shire was built. The
sets from the movie are not in the town center but on a large,
private sheep farm. Our tour group is small – we are joined by 1
Swedish woman and of ...

... was of course going inside Bag End even if the inside of it was nothing like what we saw in the movies as those were filmed on a studio set in Wellington. The surroundings themselves (including the party tree and the lake (go re-watch the movie if this is not familiar :P) are gorgeous to just soak up. We also got our first sourvenir at ...

... die Haeus** nicht in den Zustand des Filmes zuruecksetzen. Heute laufen viele Schafe ueb** das Gebiet des einstigen Hobbingen. Da wohl dieses Jahr mit d** V**filmung des Hobbits begonnen w**den soll, kann es sein, dass dies wied** teilweise auf d** FArm d** Alexand**s passi**en wird. Und es w**den bestimmt noch Komparsen gesucht :) Anschliessend an Hobbingen bekommen wir noch eine Schafsche**ung demonstri**t. Das arme Schaf v**li**t in we***** als 5 Minuten seine ganze ...

... having a beach house to ourselves. we spent the time reading, taking walks, and even finished a "where's waldo jigsaw puzzle" (750 pieces! - we'd never have the patience for that back home). all in all, it was a wonderful weekend. (we did't get to go swimming though because the jellyfish were out in crazy schools. at low tide, they'd wash ashore and i'd never seen so many of them!!)

... tour guide had to rescue one of the sheep who'd fallen on its side and couldn't get up. Apparently, when sheep get "cast" like that, they can actually die if they're not helped back up on their feet. Our guide then took us to the "Party Tree" where Shannon and I were the only people dorky enough to run around it for pictures. Our guide showed us where they filmed the first scene in the movie in which ...

... can just eat that instead of starving becuase the food is not so good. you get used to it but I can't wait to eat good food when I get home. This past weekend, 8 of us went to a kiwi guy, Simon's beach house in Papamoa. It was 10 minutes away from this mountain, Mt. Maunganui which is right next to the beach. It took us about an hour to climb all the way to the top and was a rediculous workout. The views were gorgeous ...

After a long walk to the bus stop in Rotorua (about 20 mins with the backpack, which is getting heavier and heavier, even though I'm getting rid of stuff all the time!), we jumped on the bus heading to Mt. Maunganui. Due to the very cheap tickets we had got, we had an hour and a half stop in Cambridge along the way, where Lauren climbed a statue, and we all had natchos in an English ...

... earlier you book the cheaper the seats are, and I happened to be early enough! The bus to Raglan is $4.95 with the busit card (the Hamilton City frequent-rider card), which I have. I love it when things are cheap!!! So now I just need to work on booking the hostels. Whew! What else can I talk about? Well I'm staying in a place called Orchard Park, which is made up of 4-person cottages and is mainly for the upperclassmen, since it's self-catered and more like living in a flat or ...