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Hobbiton
We were very happy in Tauranga, so I asked the hotel manager whether we could stay for a few more nights, but unfortunately the hotel completely booked for the coming nights; our only option was to leave. But where would we go? We had seen all the highlights of the North Island that were on my wish list by now. And it was time for us to start taking into account the date of our return trip was getting nearer and nearer. So we’d better move in the direction of Auckland, because that was were we would have to end our tour. Oh well, let’s go to Hamilton then…
The route from Tauranga to Hamilton is via the roads S29 and S1. And along the S29 I has seen an interesting sign a few times already: “Hobbiton”! Everywhere in New Zealand we had been confronted with advertisements offering expersive outings to Hobbiton by bus. But since it was very near the road we were travelling on, an expensive bus trip did not seem necessary!
I am referring to “Lord of the Rings” of course, the famous book by John Ronald Reuel Tolkien. A movie was made from this book in New Zealand and this sign pointed to the location where the outside-shots taking place “Hobbiton” in “The Shire” have been made. so why not take a right turn here to go and have a look?
And indeed: After driving a few miles along Buckland Road we saw a big sign: “Welcome to Hobbiton” Unfortunately this sign was telling a lie: we were not welcome there at all! The film set was somewhere beyond the hills, on the other side of a closed gate with a sign showing very intimidating threats to anyone who wanted to pass it. The sign looked like a lot of people had already attacked it driven by their frustration about the unfriendliness of the land owner. The only places to go here were a restaurant, a sheep farm and a souvenir shop.
The film set was probably not very interesting to see anyway: People who did visit it, can tell you that the Hobbit-homes with their typical round windows and doors are in fact no more than hardboard façades with nothing behind them. All the inside-shots have been taken in studios in Wellington. Well, there was a very similar façade inside the souvenir shop. But still… I was very disappointed.
If you forget about the fence and the electricity wires in this picture, the scenery here indeed looks a lot like one would imagine what “The Shire” looks like: The most peaceful area in “Middle Earth”, the land of the Hobbits. The Hobbits, a friendly ancient folk, who enjoy eating and sleeping and love to smoke a good pipe. They prefer to stay away from the matters of big people like wars, technology and politics. You can almost see them here…
Hamilton is not the first city that comes to mind when you think about a holiday in New Zealand. It is not in the seaside. The same can be said about Taupo of course, but Taupo has at least got a lake. And Rotorua has hot mud pools. But what can you do in Hamilton?? Our travel guide put our minds at ease: Hamilton has some of the finest restaurants in all New Zealand.
through the i-Site we booked a room in a hotel (Aaron Court Motor Inn) with a great bathroom: Jacuzzi and massage shower, yeah! And, very important: A little balcony where we would be allowed to smoke. So we brought our suitcases there and set out to explore the city.
There were nice shops to look at. It was now one of the final opportunities to buy some stuff at friendly New zealand prices. Lord of the Rings for instance: All volumes in one book at Whitcoulls’ for NZ$ 39.99 (Euro 16.40). Can Amazon match that as well? Yes they can: The version I bought is no longer for sale. But they do have: “The Lord of the Rings: 50th Anniversary, One Vol. Edition
Our travel guide pointed to some “gay friendly” places to go out. Usually these are also places where acceptance of transgendered people is above average. (We had had some very good experiences with that in Prague.) And for the many T-girls (& T-guys) who read my blog, it seemed useful to tell something about the venues listed. Unfortunately this was not very succesful. Both the places that were listed in the book looked like they had been abondoned months ago. nothing going on there.
No, let’s just go have dinner as usual! I had planned to go to “Sahara Tent”, it looked nice in the formation folder we found in the hotel room. But when we got there it did not look attractive at all. We were very tired from walking from our hotel all the way down Victoria Street, so we picked the closes restaurant we could see: “Iguana” (203 Victoria Street) This turned out to be a great choice! We had a truly delicious meal there.
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