Tag: rotorua

Rainy Rotorua

When I got back from Hobbiton, I grabbed lunch – being adventurous, I went into a Korean restaurant – and the menu was mostly in Korean, with some minimal translation – so I ordered a pork dish – which ended up being a “cook at your own table” pork dish, which was really cool – it came with 6 different sides (kimchi, cucumbers, eggplant, etc) – It was quite delightful, and I was glad to have taken the chance.

After lunch, I decided I would take a wander through the Government Gardens and Heritage Trail in Rotorua, then make the trek around the Sulfur Lake Path to check out some thermal activity.

The walk started out cloudy, but quite nice.

I stumbled upon the Sculpture Trail – neat art – cool descriptions. I tried to find the program online, and failed, but there is a pdf of the descriptions below the collage for those of you that like to look at art work and their descriptions.

Sculpture Trail Descriptions

After finishing the trail I checked out flowers, buildings and thermal pools:

As I continued around I found a lovely trail beside the lake, and found more beautiful scenery on the lake, until, those clouds broke open, and I mean, wide open. I was already wet by the time i could get my rain jacket on, and I was a good 20 minute walk from the gardens at that point. I was DRENCHED. I was afraid that my poor shoes might never recover – but after some baking soda and sunshine, they do seem fine, which is good when you are living on 4 pair of shoes for 6 months, by the way!

I made the most of the wet walk, enjoying the secluded path and thermal activity – I was already soaked, so why rush back now?

When I got back to the hostel, I decided that I would soak in the hot tub at the hostel – after all – I was already drenched, right?

So I changed into my swimsuit and enjoyed the spa for a bit before showering and heading to bed.

The next morning I had a pretty flexible schedule, so I looked on this Book Me site for something to do, as it was dreadfully dreary and rainy, so outside activities had very little appeal.

There was a Gondola Ride, Lunch and wine tasting that had a bit of appeal, so I decided to take advantage of it.

I looked up the Rotorua bus system, and figured out when and where I needed to catch a bus to across town, then checked out of the Hostel, and they graciously agreed to let me store my bag for the day, since I was taking the overnight bus at 11:00 PM back to Wellington. I just had to come back by 7 to get my bag.

I arrived at the Skyview Gondola, and pretty much had the run of the place – the Luge and BMX track and other outdoor activities were closed, so there were not many people hanging out up top – but the views were gorgeous, even in the rain.

I had lunch, explored the stores (mostly tourist-y – but check out the crazy cool Jelly Belly “artwork”), then had a tasting of wine from the different regions of New Zealand.

After that, I went back to the Hostel and hung out in the lounge for a bit. I got my bag at about 6:00, and because I had to have internet for a conference call at 7:00, and no longer had Wi-fi at the Hostel, went to the McDonald’s (or Macca’s) to connect and work while I waited for the late bus, because there was not a place to hang out at the bus stop.

While at McDonald’s I connected with the NZ Microsoft Innovative Educator Network’s monthly conference call – and had a chance to introduce myself and tell them about my inquiry project. It was a great call – and it was so nice to connect with them all – and they have given me some great places to visit and schools to see.

Once the call was complete I still had a few hours, so I continued to work on stuff until I thought it was time to head to the bus.

The bus stop was well lit, but I was glad there was another lady waiting there with me that time of night, a women who had been visiting her children in Auckland and was headed home to Wellington. Pretty soon we were joined by another girl, a sweet younger girl from Switzerland. The three of us sat on the bench and talked about mostly New Zealand and our respective journeys, and it was nice to have company – as we talked we came to realize that the older woman was not on our bus, but a later bus to Wellington – due to an issue with her bus company, they dropped her off of one bus, but her second bus was significantly delayed, and she was going to be waiting until at least 1:00. . .by herself. . . in the dark, and she was already pretty cold and bundled in her blankets. The Swiss girl immediately  said no, no no – we are putting you on the bus with us. It took some convincing, but we were able to get her to give us her whole name, and we booked the ticket for her to be on the bus with us. It was such a small gesture, but it warmed my heart that 3 women, traveling alone, from 3 different continents shared that brief bond, and I felt so much better knowing she was safely at her destination – not sitting at the bus station.

After that the night bus was uneventful – I slept on and off, and we arrived in Wellington at 6:30, at which point I was not feeling motivated to walk home, or even do the bus thing to Aro Valley, so i got an Uber, went home, and crashed for a few hours before I went to a special event at Te Papa – which I will tell you about later!

 

Hobbiton

So today was the day I ventured to Hobbiton. I took the tour that provided transport from Rotorua. We meet at the Hobbiton shop in Rotorua, where #Minifigmerry got to meet Gandalf.

(a side note – Hobbiton tours contacted me and asked if they could use the Minifigmerry and Gandalf picture – I said yes, of course!)

The drive from Rotorua to Matamata was about an hour, and while we were driving there were a view videos about the process of creating (and tearing down, and recreating Hobbiton), and our guide also kept us entertained with local stories and sightseeing. Again – I am finding that bus is a great way to see the lovely NZ countryside.

One of the coolest things he shared with us was about these metal sculptures in one of the towns we passed through. The town Tirau was the first place that Steven Clothier made and placed one of these sculptures, which are made of corrugated iron – just like a roof. These sculptures line the town now, and are really pretty cool, if not a little kitschy. The Dog, was the first sculpture, and was completed in 1998.

You can read more here, and see more (and much better pictures than my blurry from the bus pictures below) here on his website: http://www.corrugatedcreations.co.nz/. He has probably made a sculpture of most everything you can imagine – animals, plants, flip-flops, even Jesus!

After the drive, we arrived at the Alexander Family Farm – and it truly felt like we were in the shire as we drove through the rolling farmland.

Some history about Hobbiton – This farm was used for both the Lord of The Rings and The Hobbit trilogies. Sir Peter Jackson discovered this farm in 1998. The built the set for LoTR, and then promptly destroyed it. It was a condition of the contract, both with the Alexander family and the movie studio that the farm be returned to “it’s natural state” and that all filming artifacts be removed, as the movie studio owned all of the intellectual property and creations. However, the weather did not cooperate completely with that plan, and in 2000, once filming at the Shire was a wrap, an attempt at demolition was made, and they were unable to do it because of an unseasonably wet season.

The Alexander Farm was left with only about 17 plywood facades, with a plan to demolish once they could do that with out disturbing the land. However, the power of a fairly obsessive Tolkien fandom is strong, and even with very little remnants of the set, the Alexanders found themselves with lots of “visitors”.

In what I am sure has been a smart business move for them, they started offering guided tours of Hobbiton starting in 2002.  Early visitors would have just seen this:

In 2009 Peter Jackson got the negotiations completed to film the Hobbit Trilogy, and he returned to the Alexander’s Family Farm to film – and the rest is history – as a part of the contract to use the space, the agreement was made to keep the set “intact” using more sturdy construction, and the current Hobbiton was born, with 44 completed Hobbit holes.

Additionally, in 2012 the Green Dragon was added as a functional place to grab a flagon. The tour of Hobbiton was amazing, and it truly felt as if I was in the Shire. The attention to detail at Hobbiton is crazy – It goes a long way to explaining the genius and success of Sir  Peter Jackson as well as his fashioning of New Zealand as the perfect Middle Earth – the best commercial ever for New Zealand – cause guys, I know I keep saying this this country is AMAZING – and I haven’t even really scratched the surface! More here: http://www.hobbitontours.com/

A few notes as you look through the pictures:

  • The hobbit holes that are the “same” are different sizes for perspective. (Gandalf and Frodo size, for instance).
  • At many hobbit holes you can see the trade of the residents – there are beekeepers, fishermen and more – see what you can find.
  • Many of the holes never even made it into the movie at all – again – Sir Peter Jackson has a crazy attention to detail.
  • There are no rooms behind the doors – they are just dirt floors, mostly used for garden storage.

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Thankful that the rain held out for the tour, I enjoyed my nice stout, then we got back on the bus, headed back to Rotorua, and I still had the afternoon to explore, but I will put that in the next post.

Also, as another cool side note, one of the streets was called “Merry Meander” – guess where it leads? Straight to the Green Dragon – coincidence? I think not!


 

My first Journey outside of Wellington – Traveling to Rotorua and a night at the Spa

I had a school visit that was cancelled for this week, so I decided to take advantage of the unexpected opening and head up to Rotorua, on the border of the Bay of Plenty and the Waikato region.

Routorua is a hub of geothermal activity in New Zealand, so a home to geysers, hot thermal spas and sulfur lakes.

This map from http://ontheworldmap.com is helpful in seeing the regions of NZ. 

Because of the last minute nature of this trip, I went with the Intercity Bus service, as flights were just super pricey.My bus left early Monday morning, so Julian sweetly volunteered to take me to the train station so I didn’t have to walk in the dark or catch a crazy early bus. The bus departed on time, and the drive was a great way to see the NZ countryside. We stopped at a cafe for a brief stretch, drink and toilet break, and there were even opportunities to see some farm animals there, as you will see below. We did have a bit of a delay – road construction at Mount Doom – (insert cheesy joke here – I have thought of several – they are all really bad). But I still arrived in Rotorua at around 3:45, so I had plenty of time to get settled into the hostel and have some fun.

Honestly, I was super thankful that I did the bus, because it was the perfect way to see NZ, and I would have missed the scenery if I flew.  The bus seats were comfy (relatively speaking) and armed with my Bluetooth headphones, my handy-dandy travel pillow (one of my best purchases ever, by the way), and a Pandora offline playlist, I was good to go.

When the bus arrived in Rotorua, I noticed a particular smell – the Eau de Sulphur, if you will – it took some getting used to, but once I was “adjusted” it was just like background noise.

I got settled into Rotorua Central Backpackers – which was one of the best hostels I have stayed in. The beds were not bunks, the hostel “spa” (hot tub) was very nice and Neil and Catherine were wonderful hosts.It was right around the corner from the bus station and walking distance to everything.

After I was settled in, I decided to head to the Polynesian Spa to relax in the thermal baths as day turned to night.

I was worried it would be overrun with tourists, as their were several tour buses in the parking lot, but it was easy to find pools and places to relax all on my own, and there were several instances where I had nice conversations with locals, backpackers and other tourists as we hopped from different temperature pools. Watching the stars come out sitting in a geothermal spa? – not a bad way to spend an evening.

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At about 10:30, I walked the 7 minutes or so back to the hostel, so that I could get ready for bed, as I had big plans for Tuesday – Matamata and the Hobbiton tour!