Today we picked up our rental car bright and early. No Lyft in New Zealand, but they do have Uber, which we took since it was a 20 minute walk with all our luggage. That part went fine, but what a horrid experience picking up the rental!!! We arrived at 7:45 wanting to pick up our car when they opened at 8 am. However, our travel agent made the reservation for 9 am and they WOULD NOT allow us to take the car early! A guy from Whitby was having the same problem. Then some guys came and mentioned how in their last experience with Europcar, the car was wrecked on the way to them, and then a second car was wrecked on the way to them, and the whole thing took almost 3 hours. Then 2 other guys came and zoom zoom they were through UNTIL they showed their driver's licenses - which apparently were not english. So they were told to apply online for an official translation of their licenses, which cost $65 each and took a few hours. Meanwhile, while all this was going on, we were on the phone with our travel agent, who was supposed to authorize our change and then call their office. But apparently our agent could not get through to their office. We finally told the Europcar guy that our agent authorized the car, and he took us at 8:50. On our way out, who did we happen to see but our nice UK couple from yesterday's ferry LOL.
We rented a Toyota Corolla (a subcompact crossover SUV). The trunk is not big enough for both suitcases, we had to put the seats down. We will have it only for the north island. And yes, they drive on the LEFT hand side of the road here!
After only 3 close calls, we made it out of the city.
Those 10 minutes proved to be crucial because we arrived at our tour with only 10 minutes to spare. And it was one of the tours we just did not want to miss. It was a 2 hour drive to our first destination: Hobbiton!!!! Arrive and pick up your tickets at The Shire's Rest Ticketing Office ha ha. So busy! The parking lot had hundreds of cars and it took us awhile to find a spot.
It was a guided tour, and included Hobbit locations such as The Green Dragon Inn, the Mill, the Party Tree, and of course Hobbit Holes. Peter Jackson built 44 Hobbit holes! In 1998, his crew used a helicopter to find the perfect location for his Hobbit village. When they saw the 1250 acre sheep farm owned by the Alexander family, they knew it was perfect. Apparently they knocked on the farmer's door on a Saturday. They know this because he was watching rugby. New Zealanders don't like to be interrupted when watching rugby, but luckily it was during a break. The crew asked if they could look around and the farmer said sure, just close the gates behind you. And thus a movie location was born. At least that is the story that our guide Kat told us. Kat happens to be Canadian and her parents live in KW ha ha.
To make the movie, Peter Jackson replaced the farmer's sheep and pigs with different sheep and pigs to look more authentic. He also wanted a plum tree because JR Tolkien refers to a plum tree. But the plum trees were too tall, so he planted apple and pear trees, then stripped the fruit and leaves and replaced them with synthetic plum leaves and fruit, each one individually affixed with wire. BTW, this tree that took so much work shows up in the movie for all of 5 seconds.
We really enjoyed looking at the Hobbit homes. You'll notice every door is different. To make the Hobbits seem smaller, he built large doors. To make Gandalf seem larger, he built small doors.
Here is Bag End itself, where Bilbo and Frodo Baggins lived:
This home belonged to Samwise Gamgee, and this is the last scene of the movies. BTW, the little girl who runs into his arms was his real daughter and Rose's baby was her own baby.
The really cool part was being able to explore one of the Hobbit holes. It was huge, and it really was like a rabbit's warren in there! Here is a video that Anton took:
The tour took 2 hours, and then we were given lunch at the Party Marquee. Fitting, since hobbits eat like 10 times a day. The food was buffet but quite good, and they had a separate charcuterie board of desserts for Frankie.
Kat finished our tour by saying, "Stay safe, stay brave, and most of all stay left!" We finished lunch at 3 pm (guess we won't need supper!) and then it was a one hour drive to our hotel in Rotorua. Are you sure we're going the right way????
Our hotel was a bit tricky to find and only had 12 parking spaces, but parking is free on the street between 5 pm and 9 am. Because it was only 4:45 when we arrived, we stayed at the car to avoid the $180 ticket.
It seems our travel agent booked us into a "boutique" hotel. Basically that means that we couldn't tell if the receptionist was male or female. It must be a prerequisite to work there, since the other receptionist was the same. The other thing a "boutique" hotel means is that there is no elevator, carry your luggage up the 2 flights of stairs please. But the room is huge, it has 3 beds and a nice sitting area and even a little kitchenette.
We had asked our travel agent Harriet if it was worth going several hours out of our way to see the famous glow worm caves at Waitomo. She suggested that there are little-known tours right here in Rotorua (that's why we pay her the big bucks LOL).
So it was just a 6 minute walk from our hotel for an 8 pm tour. Another 3 hour tour. They shuttled us to their location on Lake Okareka and geared us up. They gave us rainproof pants and jackets, and we all wore a headlamp.
We hopped aboard our "two person sit-on-top" kayaks and followed the guide around the lake. Lake Okareka is actually the crater of an extinct volcano.
Here is the crater wall that is made of sandstone and pumice:
The guide led us into 2 tunnels and 4 or 5 some small hidden caves where we marvelled at the glow worms. We had to turn off the headlamps inside the caves because the light would confuse the glow worms, they would think it was daytime, and they wouldn't glow for us. Since we couldn't take pictures (because of the light of the phones), we found this internet picture. They promised to email some pictures to us.
What is a glow worm? Wikipedia's definition:Glowworm or glow-worm is the common name for various groups of insect larvae and adult larviform females that glow through bioluminescence. Really, it's the larval stage of the fungus gnat fly, but glow worm sounds so much better. And they aren't really worms, they are flies. The larva is 3 cm long and they hand out in dark, damp, insulated areas such as these caves. They emit a small web and their light attracts bugs to eat (it also attracts tourists!). When they digest their prey, it creates protein to fuel the bioluminescent light and they glow brighter. After about 9 months, the larva has stored enough energy to hatch into a fly, at which point they get to procreating quickly because they only have enough energy to live for 2 days before they die.
The evening was warm and calm. We started on the lake at sunset and finished in the dark with our headlamps. We got lucky because last night they did the tour in the pouring rain. It was an amazing tour, it felt like being in a dark cathedral looking at thousands of blue stars. Apparently the only places in the world that have glow worms are New Zealand, Australia, and Tasmania.
We got back to our hotel at 11 pm, so it's a late night!
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