We arrived at our motel very early Friday morning. Luckily
Thursday had been a very long travel day so it didn't take much time for us to
unwind and go to bed. The motel was chilly,
however the beds were equipped with heated mattress pads.
Our alarm clocks
were set for 6:30 am because we had a very exciting day ahead of us! After
three cold showers we were on the road. (Not returning to that motel!)
By 8 am we piled
into our Rav4 and headed out of Auckland toward Hobbiton. Our route took us through the spectacular New
Zealand countryside. It was a two hour
drive through green fields filled with grazing sheep and cows. We had a 10:30 am entrance time to
Hobbiton. Our 2 hour tour challenged our
knowledge of the LOTR and Hobbit trilogies and took us through a brief history
of the location selection process, the set building logistics, current upkeep
and other fabulous Hobbit-esque facts.
Approximately 400 Hobbits live in Hobbiton, but we didn't see a one! Highlights included seeing Bag End - Bilbo Baggins' house and enjoying a proper
pint at the Green Dragon.
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A Hobit Hole
Hobbiton, New Zealand |
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The Tree that Sold Peter Jackson on this Location
Hobbiton, New Zealand |
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Mark, Jenny & Kayleigh at Bag End
Hobbiton, New Zealand |
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Green Dragon
Hobbiton, New Zealand |
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Dock
Hobbiton, New Zealand |
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Green Dragon
Hobbiton, New Zealand |
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| Hobbiton, New Zealand |
The next stop on the
whirl-wind tour of the northern island was the Waitomo Glowworm Caves. We set out on a 3 hour tour with SpellBound
through the New Zealand Countryside passing many sheep and cattle. Our knowledgeable and friendly guide Pete
wound us through the hills and valleys until we ended up at a cave entrance on
a private farm.
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Stalactites
Waitomo, New Zealand |
Just as a little
background - the glowworms are the larval phase of the glowworm fly - which
looks like a big mosquito but is rather harmless. These glowworms live in their glowing phase
for 300 days. The purpose of the glow is
to attract insects for them to feed upon.
After they have matured, they turn into glowworm flies and live for the
ripe old age of 4 days. Why do they have
such a short life? (I'm glad you asked)
These mosquito looking critters do not have mouths or digestive
systems. They more or less mate and then
die. Each glowworm female lays
approximately 300 eggs. And the process starts all over again! Young larvae
don't glow as much as mature larvae.
We toured two caves-
one was a walking tour, and the other was a walk then a boat ride. The caves were carved out of limestone through the hills, and were quite sizeable! In the first cave we saw a few glow worms, along with stalactites and Moa bones (a large, extinct, flightless bird). In the second cave, we saw more glow worms, but the highlight of the tour was taking a boat ride through darkness while our eyes acclimated to the darkness. The worms made it look like a very starry night overhead!
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Jenny the Spelunker
Waitomo, New Zealand |
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Glow Worms!
Waitomo, New Zealand |
After Waitomo, we drove back to Auckland, had a gourmet meal (well not quite, but it was NZ beef) at Wendy's, and headed back to our motel.
