Friday, November 18, 2011

New Zealand: Days 3-4

Catching up? Read about days one and two of our trip to New Zealand here!

On the morning of Day 3, we picked up our rental car and began the drive from Auckland to Matamata to see Hobbiton. I think this was M’s dream come true. Mine too actually (it was way cooler than I imagined) and we picked a perfect time to go. Filming for The Hobbit in this location wrapped up a week earlier so the set looked perfect. And unfortunately that’s all I can say about that because they made us sign paperwork saying we wouldn’t disclose any information or share pictures.

After the tour of the set we watched a sheep get sheared. It was nuts! The farmer said the key to a good shearing is to keep the sheep relaxed. He just sat the sheep down like you see in the picture below, cut away, and the sheep barely moved at all!

I also got to feed a lamb some milk! It sure had a powerful suck.

From there we drove to Waitomo and stayed at a cute B&B. Bright and early the next morning we took a tour of the glowworm cave. First we walked through the cave and learned how it was formed but the best part came next when we boarded a little boat.
It took us through the darkness with the only light coming from the million glowworms surrounding us. It was really beautiful. Everyone was silent, just enjoying the magic of what looked like hundreds of tiny stars lighting our way. Thank goodness Little m didn’t make a peep the whole time.

We also took a two hour tour through the Ruakuri Cave which was also very cool. It had lots of crazy formations.

That pretty much sums up the highlights of days three and four! To end, here are some (interesting to me) things I’ve noticed about New Zealand so far:

-It’s windy here all the time.

-It’s very hard to dress properly. It’s cold in the mornings, boiling hot in the sun, and cool when there’s cloud coverage. The sweater goes on off all day long. One tour guide says this happens because the sun’s heat goes directly through a hole in the ozone.

-The names of places makes me think we’re in Hawaii.

-There are way more Asian people here than I imagined and they run a lot of the shops in the bigger cities.

-The people are just as friendly as I guessed!

2 comments:

  1. Wow!! Your trip sounds amazing. I can't wait to read more.

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  2. Wow it sure does sound fantastic! You've got us thinking we have to add New Zealand to the bucket list!

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