First off, we both saw a kingfisher. Today is my highlight of the North Island – a visit to Hobbiton. It was about a 35-minute drive to the film set. First thing was to check in and transfer our bookings to tickets. We were scheduled for the 11.10 tour. The tours run every 10 or so minutes, some though are scheduled from other locations such as Rotorua. At 11.10 we boarded a bus with 30 other people for the short trip to the actual location on the farm. Our driver was a comical Kiwi woman who warned us not to touch the electric fences, but if we were going to do so, to please let everyone know so they could publish an amusing Youtube video.

Our guide then showed us around the set, which was made as a permanent construction and is maintained to look exactly like how it appeared in the three Hobbit films. The first set used for the Lord of The Rings trilogy, was not built as a permanent feature. The guide explained much about how the Hobbit holes were filmed, many of different sizes, so that when a Hobbit was filmed they stood next to a larger Hobbit door. When Gandalf was filmed he would be standing next to a small Hobbit door. The site is extensive, the vegetable gardens are maintained. The oddity was an oak tree on the top of Bag End. The one in the LoTR was a real one, transported to the spot. But the Hobbit one is artificial down to its plastic leaves but built to look like exactly like the LoTR one would have done 60 Years earlier, as per the timing of the Hobbit story. We posed for photographs outside Bag End.  Finally, we ended up in the Green Dragon Inn for a “freebie” ale.

I would definitely recommend the trip to anyone, especially photographers and film-makers. In our group was a chap who taught Special Effects for Films (in Adelaide). He was entranced by it all.

Back at the carpark we went to Tirau for lunch. I suggested that the town had many junk shops. This was duff information from a book I had been reading about motorhome travelling in NZ. Things must have changed in the last 10 years. We did home in on the Bugger Café where we had coffee and a Bugger Burger. Rosemary asked if they were a chain because we had seen another one. Yes it was a chain, a chain of two; we had seen the only other one which is in Coromondel by the entry bridge.

After lunch we headed to the Te Waihou Walkway. It was a recommended location in the Hobbit Locations book I bought recently. It was never used, but the location was suggested as a river that could have appeared in the film. I walked the whole length of the walk (8km). The river was fastish flowing and featured some lovely colours of green and blue. Let’s hope the pictures do the colours justice. R sat & spotted parakeets & kingfishers while I did the last half.

Our final 35 minutes journey of the day was to Rotorua. You could pick up Rotorua and plonk it in America and it would not look at all out of place. A lot of the towns in New Zealand look very Americanised, Rotorua even more so.

We aimed for the Top10 in the centre. When we arrived and saw the price of $60NZ for an unpowered site for the night we turned around. Nope not paying that even if we have a discount. Instead we headed out of Rotorua for the Blue Lake Top10, which was a far more reasonable price & a nicer location. We are booked into here for two nights on a large and quiet pitch. As we had missed out on food shopping we tried the campsite shop. Choice so limited that we gave it a miss. We did have some salad and cheese in stock.

Tomorrow beckons with some activity-based entertainment. Not sure if R is excited at the thought of it.