We Visited The Hobbits!!

We got to see the hobbits!  Well, not actually, but we did visit the Shire where The Lord of the Rings was filmed and also The Hobbit (part 1 released later this year).  It was awesome!  It was exceptional.  It was much better than we expected (and we were pretty excited about it to begin with!).

It ended up being a beautiful day, the weather was perfect! 

Our tour started at the Shire's Rest cafe, where we boarded a bus filled with other Lord of the Rings fans and we headed out into the movie set.  

I didn't realize how large the set is.  There were over 30 hobbit holes built!  Each one unique and designed to look old.  The shire was built 2 years before the Lord of the Rings was filmed because the vegetation needed to grow to have the look of being well established.

Stunning!  The tree on the far left is the tree on top of Bag End!

Each hobbit hole had such detail!

The garden was beautiful!

From up the hill, looking over the shire.  The white dots are sheep.  The Shire was constructed on a working sheep farm.

This one we could go in!

Looking out from the hobbit hole...

The tree on top of Bag End.  It's fake!!  The original tree (the one featured in The Lord of The Rings) was real, but in order to film The Hobbit, they needed the tree to look 60 years younger.  So, they constructed a fake tree that have the look and movement of a real tree.  Our tour guide said that it confused the birds at first, but mostly, the birds know now.  Between when the tree was put in place and when the filming started, the leaves faded.  But, not to worry, they sent a few people up into the tree to paint each leaf!

Bilbo's house, Bag End!

A hobbit family!

We played on the field where Bilbo's 111th birthday party was.  Madeline helped out the tour guide by showing everyone how to dance like a hobbit!

A view from the party field over to the Green Dragon Bar.  

A couple of hobbit kids playing!  

This tree is the tree that is in the party field.  Bilbo stands next to it at his party and makes his famous speech to the hobbits just before he disappears!

What a gorgeous day!

Frodo and Gandalf pass through this passage on the cart at the beginning of The Fellowship of the Ring.

It was magic visiting Hobbiton!  I loved every minute of it.  The entire tour was about 1 1/2 hours.  After the tour, we returned to The Shire's Rest and the kids fed some sheep and pet the baby lambs.  We headed back into town (Matamata) for lunch and then returned to our cottage.  When we got there, it started to rain.  So, Scott built a fire and we all cuddled up and he read to us from The Hobbit.  We decided that our NZ holiday would be a perfect time to share that special story with our kids.  We were all so captivated by the story and the cozy afternoon, that Scott read to us for 3 hours!  It was a very special family day that we all enjoyed.

New Zealand Holiday Magic - part 1

We've just returned from a spectacular holiday in New Zealand.  I have to say, it's the most beautiful country I've ever had the pleasure of visiting.  I loved it!  Our friend, a Kiwi (native to New Zealand), said that 100% of people that visit New Zealand want to move there, and 10% do.  We definitely fall into the 100% of visitors!  

When planning our trip, we decided to only visit the North Island.  There were some things we didn't want to miss on the North Island and with our kids small, we didn't want to spend all of our time driving.  Most people say the South Island is more beautiful than the North.  I'd love to visit there too!  I think it's an adventure better suited to older children.  The South Island is host to spectacular hiking and white water rafting, skiing, ect.  I can't wait to return to NZ when my kids are teens!!

But, let's return to our North Island visit.  We flew into Auckland.  NZ is quite remote, on the edge of the world it seems.  From Singapore, it's an 11 hour flight.  We flew overnight, direct from Singapore to Auckland.  The kids were champions!  They've become wonderful travelers.  They slept, Scott and I didn't.  We arrived in the morning, hired our rental car and headed off to find our hotel.  It was Scott's first time to drive on the left side of the road.  Tricky.  I learned how to use the GPS system in the car and that helped us find our way.

On our first day, we napped and then found a park to play in and dinner near the viaduct.  It was cold!!  Well, not actually, but to me I thought it was very cold!  I think living in the tropics has made my blood thin.  We bundled up in layers and gloves and headed out to explore the city.

We found a park with a skater park in it.  The kids loved playing on the 1/2 pipe, using it as a slide.  We enjoyed watching the bigger kids on skateboards and scooters.  They were amazing!  I loved this picture of the kids playing with the Auckland tower pictured in the back.

Auckland Harbor.  Beautiful!

We visited the Auckland Underwater World.  They had penguins!  We saw a very large sting ray, at least 3 feet across.  The kids held star fish and we saw sea horses! Fun!

After, we found a beautiful park and played outside.

I loved this table!  The design is so simple and beautiful!

We visited Cromwell Park in Auckland and found sheep!  Someone told me that NZ has more sheep than people, I think it's true.

Scott and the kids quietly crept up behind this one to try to get close.  I managed this (blurry) picture before the sheep ran off.

A view from Cromwell Park looking out to Auckland.  Gorgeous!

We drove up to the top of One Tree Hill.  The view was stunning.  A bit windy, but worth it.

We left Auckland and headed out to the country side to a little town called Matamata.  We stayed in a little farm cottage on a dairy farm.  From the back of the cottage, we had a view of this beautiful waterfall.  So peaceful!

Madeline loved the flowers in bloom all around the farm cottage.  It's springtime now in New Zealand.

The kids were so excited to watch the cows!  The pen near our cottage was the nursery pen.  All of the cows expected to calf were kept here to be close and under watch.  The calves we saw had just been born the night before!

This mother cow was helping her newborn baby up!  So sweet!

We took a hike towards the waterfall that we could see from our cottage.  We didn't make it all the way to the summit, but we hiked in to this nice bridge and had a beautiful view of the stream.

Lily found her way to the water.  She took her shoes and socks off and tested the water with her toe.  It was cold!!

We saw this cute little table on our hike back.  Happy family spending time together outside and enjoying the fresh air and beautiful forest.

Just a sample of the beautiful roads we were so fortunate to travel on.

The only heat in our little farm cottage was this wood burning stove.  Scott kept the fire going and the kids played legos.  Peace.

Our host, Farmer Steve brought a new born calf over for the kids to pet.  His mother, Beatrice was a little suspicious, but in the end decided we were okay.

Up next Hobbiton!