Before leaving Rotorua, we went to the McCafe. Not sure I can tell you the last time I was in a McDonalds in the States, but I can say that McDonalds is normally a place I actively avoid. Has anyone gone to a McDonalds in Europe/Australia/New Zealand? (Note: I hear Asia works the same way) McDonalds elsewhere is more Starbucks-like. Anyhow, we didn't avoid it in Rotorua and the experience was a positive one. No plans to spend a USD in a McDonalds anytime soon, but they can expect my more colorful currencies in the years to come.
So we went to the movie set from the Lord of the Rings/ The Hobbit, then continued on to Auckland. The net is that today was one of those days when the photos can do the talking for me. Let's start with Hobbiton - for those familiar with the Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit movie series, the Shire/ Bag End scenes were all filmed on the Alexander family sheep farm outside of Matamata. They did a good job and Victoria liked it more than last night's Haka by a wide margin - having not seen the movies of course. Some of the Hobbit residences are really small, some are more human sized. Either way, this is a cool place to walk around...
So we went to the movie set from the Lord of the Rings/ The Hobbit, then continued on to Auckland. The net is that today was one of those days when the photos can do the talking for me. Let's start with Hobbiton - for those familiar with the Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit movie series, the Shire/ Bag End scenes were all filmed on the Alexander family sheep farm outside of Matamata. They did a good job and Victoria liked it more than last night's Haka by a wide margin - having not seen the movies of course. Some of the Hobbit residences are really small, some are more human sized. Either way, this is a cool place to walk around...
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| That door looks small to me |
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| Bilbo's Front Door |
So yeah, the whole tour was great. Even got to speak some Deutsch with some others on the tour. They wrapped things up with a visit to the Green Dragon pub and a meat pie. Then, it was off to Auckland. Gotta say, this is a sweet location in the heart of NZ's largest city. Here are a few views from the room and around the hotel., including a night view from the room right now.
Lastly, we had enough time this afternoon to do the Hop-On/ Hop-Off bus around Auckland. It's a beautiful harbor city. That tour gave me enough info to figure our our plans for the last night in NZ later this week. Scenes from around the city:
We've got a harbor tour in the AM, then we are going further north.
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