Rotorua and Hobbiton

Rotorua was only an hour or so drive, so we stopped at a couple of places along the way. The highlight was Rainbow Mountain, named for the very colorful clay in the soil. As a bonus, the summit gave tremendous views of the surrounding green rolling hills. If it wasn’t quite so chilly up top, we would have stayed there for hours.

Parts of the hillsides are also steaming due to geothermal vents!

The town of Rotorua, and surrounding areas, smells like rotten eggs due to all the geothermal sulphur vents. A large reserve just outside the city was planted from California’s coastal redwoods decades ago. The reserve has some of the most extensive mountain biking tracks I’ve seen. Too bad I don’t know how to do that… yet.

Super stinky and crazy blue colored thermal pool.

Some really clear night skies gave me time to play around with night photography some more. Not pictured here but visible on any clear night was the southern cross, only visible in the southern hemisphere. It was a cool reminder that we’re way down south! 

We ate lunch in the camper on a little peninsula next to water plants that spell out ROTORUA, if viewed from above (we found it on google maps satellite layer). These blacks swans were waiting around for scraps. We didn’t give them any.

One of our main reasons for staying in Rotorua was to see a Maori cultural show and traditional hangi feast. The indigenous Maori were originally Pacific Islanders. We had a great time learning more about their history and eating delicious food cooked in the underground ‘oven’.

There were multiple opportunities to participate in their dancing and games. I didn’t catch anyone hitting themselves in the face with these ball things, used for games and strengthening your wrist for battle weapons, but it happened.

After Rotorua, we visited the long-awaited Hobbiton movie set. We were ready for a really touristy experience, but still super excited. It ended up being a big time highlight of the North Island for us. Really touristy, but also really well done and maintained. You tour all of Hobbiton, which is a well built-out little village (it doesn’t feel like a movie set). There are 44 hobbit holes, gardens, the green dragon inn, and it’s all just perfect. Perhaps this is how people who like Disneyland feel, which I’ve never understood before. We would totally return for another tour. Just some of the hobbit holes that we nerded out over. Everything is so detailed and there is a full time staff of gardeners and builders who maintain every little detail.

The tree above Bag End is actually fake, with many thousands of wired on leaves. Between the films, the original tree died so they made an exact replica. :-O

The tour ends at the Green Dragon, where we each got 2 pints of ale brewed locally. Perfect.

Highlights of Hobbiton and Rotorua:

• Hobbity holes. Really touristy, really cozy. We loved it regardless
• The Tamaki Maori Village cultural experience was really well done
• The redwood forest in Rotorua is really cool. Even better if we’d had a mountain bike.

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