With the stolen car replaced (unfortunately not at the expense of the insurance company), claims filed, forensics investigations scheduled and the report underway, we headed south to a town called Matmata. This small rural town near the center of the north island is well known for horse breeding and racing and for it’s rolling green hills with ponds and big trees, making one of it’s farms an excellent location for hobbit holes and the film site for a movie you might of heard of. Danny and I toured Hobbiton, home of the Shire and were not disappointed. It was a fun walk through a magical scene straight out of the movies. Cause it was. There were over 40 hobbit holes built into the hills with winding dirt trails between them. We learned tons of interesting background on the land used for the Shire, behind the scenes details and history, and what lengths Peter Jackson would go to in order to appease his attention to the finest detail. We saw them all from Samwise the Brave’s home, to Bilbo’s dwelling place at the top of Bag End. The party tree where Bilbo disappeared after his eleventy-first birthday and the street he ran down “going on an adventure” (reenacted by us of course). At the end of our tour we stopped off at the Green Dragon pub for a few Hobbit brews. It was a fun afternoon, and we met a friend who helped take pictures of us being tourists. She also happened to have a friend selling a vehicle. Coincidence? I think not.
So after returning to the town centre, Melanie introduced us to her friend Kevin and the rig he was trying to sell by the weekend, before leaving for Indonesia and then Australia. We talked for a while and I took it for a spin around the block. Then we exchanged numbers and took off for Tauranga. The next morning we hiked to the top of Mt Manganui for some beautiful vistas of the bay. After heading back down, we finally got to go see my car and witness the destruction seen in my last post. We grabbed what remained of my belongings and headed back south into the shadows of the volcanoes of Tongariro National Park. We stayed in a very nice timber home of The next day we met back up with Kevin and Melanie and hike “the best day hike in the world” the Tongariro Alpine Crossing. This also might be familiar to many. Just picture the volcano with lava flowing and a gold elvish ring being dropped into the liquid hot magma! Yeup, we were in Mordor, but it seemed to take Frodo and Sam a lot longer to get there from the Shire than it took for us. Anyways, it was a spectacular hike with a climb to the base of the mountain the hobbits were rescued off of by eagles. Then through across a crater and up another hill to the emerald lakes and down the other side, smoke billowing out from vents in the volcano. It was valentine’s day, so after the long day of hiking with the cold wind blowing, we found an Italian restaurant, fittingly names Valintino’s and had a nice dinner with Mel and Kev.
It was an exciting few days in middle earth. Thankful for the lack of orcs and the new friends made. More on that and the new wheels later.
Much more to come…