Hobbiton!

Today we went to Hobbiton, which is what the locals actually call the Lord of the Rings movie set village that is just outside of the small town of Matamata. It was pretty magical. That's about all I can say - nothing else will really do it justice. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

Bag End, the house of Bilbo and Frodo Baggins

The Green Dragon

Inside the Green Dragon, enjoying a cold glass of ginger beer.

New Zealand - Mission Bay

The sun came out today for our trip to the beach. And I have a confession to make. After all my lectures to my kids about our proximity to the equator down here and how they have to make sure to wear enough sunscreen or they will burn to a crisp, what happens? I burn. I burn to a crisp. So there it is, all out in the open. Mock me if you must, I deserve it.

We went to a place called Mission Bay, which was a nice little beach community about a ten minute bus ride from downtown. The bay had a small strip of beach and the water was shallow for what seemed like miles out. I never even got to the deep part - it reminded me of the gulf coast down in Galveston.

The sand was covered in seashells, and we all spent some time picking up our favorites to take home with us. Even Clark couldn't resist.

The highlight of the day was when Brennan asked Sadie and Ira to bury him in the sand. What would possess him to request such a thing? Doesn't he know his siblings at all? Why would he trust them with something like that? Luckily I was there to make sure they didn't torture him (too much) while he was helpless. They did poke him in the face and dump sand on his head, but he seemed to like it so I didn't intervene.

On the way home we stopped for some ice cream (according to my friend Ramona the ice cream here is better, and she is definitely right!) then went to this underground international food court back in the city for dinner. Tonight it was Mediterranean. When I took this picture, my kids asked if I was going to turn into one of those people who posts pictures of all of their food. Yes. Yes I am.

New Zealand - Mt. Eden in the Rain

Today when we woke up and looked outside it was a bit cloudy, so we decided it would be a good day to hike to the top of Mt. Eden, which is just a few minutes away by bus. By the time we got to the bottom of the mountain (really just a very tall hill), it was starting to drizzle, but not enough to waylay us. We hiked up, and it was even more beautiful than expected. The view from the top was amazing:

And on the way up I saw more incredible trees like this one:

And there was this huge bowl that reminded me of Rock Canyon park:

Once we got up there, the rain wasn’t slowing at all. In fact, it was picking up speed. By the time we got back down to the bottom, we were soaked. But the rain is warm and the air is warm, so we weren’t cold, just wet. It was kind of an odd feeling. We saw the bus pulling up to the stop about 20 feet away and starting running and waving our arms like crazy people so that the driver would wait for us. We knew that we looked like idiotic tourists, but we didn’t care. We just wanted to catch that bus and get out of the rain. And yes, we did bring umbrellas with us to NZ, but stupidly left them back in our room.

We ate delicious Thai food for lunch and did some shopping downtown. Another fun fact about New Zealand: despite the high cost of living here, the NZ dollar has dropped significantly in recent months and the American dollar is much stronger. This means that when we buy stuff here we are getting great deals. I was contemplating buying a pair of Birkenstocks before our trip, but at around $250 a pair I decided against it. Today I found a pair that only cost $97 U.S. My tired, aching feet are in heaven!

After shopping in (still) pouring rain, we trucked back home on foot, grateful for the dry comfort of our rooms. Tomorrow is the beach. We are hoping and praying for sun.