Mon Jan 8th by Jono
I managed to get up to go for a run with Teresa, but it's getting harder :D.
We seem to be going to bed later and getting up later, I guess that's what happens as you acclimatise to the timezone.
And we didn't actually end up going for a run in the end, instead we hiked up to the top of the Pa (Maori fortified hilltop) that overlooks the site, and then explored all the paths that led off, discovering another beach that you can't get to by road along the way.
After an hours walk, and 6500 steps,Teresa and I went back to the site, got breakfast and we all got ready to go to Hobbiton.
Following Laura's advice we went to Matamata to pick up the Hobbit set tours coach from the i-Site, the i-Site has been "themed" on the outside too :D, and contains a statue of the Hero of the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings, Golem.
The coach journey had a commentary telling about the finding of the land and the family that owned it as well as the struggle to keep the location secret and was interesting. There was also a screen which showed some of the shots taken on site. Once near the set we left the coach and were taken on a guided walking tour. We took a lot of photos, these are just a few. The Hobbit holes are apparently built to NZ building code, so in theory you could live in them. The tour winds it's way past a lot familiar spots from both films, the guide explaining how a lot of the false perspective was achieved (select short actors, and stand the large actors closer to the camera etc, plus some holes are duplicated so that Dwarves and Hobbits can be filmed against them and then smaller ones so that Wizards and Elves can be filmed and look bigger. We finished it off with a summer ale, and a few ginger beers in the Green Dragon; the pub was burned down 6 times in the filming when Galadriel has a vision of what will happen to the Shire, however not all the film was used :D
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| Karen, Jono and Kai |
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| Teresa, Matt, Jensen, Kai and Jago |
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| Hobbit clothes out to dry |
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| Free drink came with the tour |
The coach picked us up and again had commentary and films to show on the road back to Matamata. We had a picnic lunch behind the i-Site in a bit of park there.
On the way home we went through Paeroa, this is the place where the world famous Lemon and Paeroa comes from.
So we stopped off for a photo op.
Then on to the Karahanga gorge, where there was a gold mining operation in days gone by. This is the start of a number of walks (you can get all the way back to Waihi from here if you want); we took the 3.5km railway walk, including at whole 1km underground in a converted railway tunnel, with glow worms. This is a loop, taking us back to the loos and the carpark. There's a bit of a beach and two creeks meet there, making it an interesting place to swim and play (Jago managed to bang his leg up a bit and we all got a few bumps from the rocks but it was still massive fun).
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| river through the gorge |
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| playing on the old mining debris |
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| fabulous views |
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| into the tunnel |
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| and out the other side |
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| playing in the river |
Once the sun started to go down we headed for the Owharao falls for dinner at the Falls Retreat.
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| we took a short walk to see the falls before dinner |
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| dinner was delicious |
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| so was dessert |
Gorgeous meal, great company and then Karen and Teresa drove us all back to the campsite with a little stop off at the Four Square to pick up essentials for tomorrow.
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