New Zealand: Matamata and Rotorua

Day 18: 27 November: Rotorua via Matamata

Hobbiton

A deviation from our given itinerary today. We went off the suggested route in order to visit Matamata, which is where Hobbiton is. In the town itself, the only sign that it has anything to do with Lord of the Rings is the half-built tourist information centre in the shape of a hobbit house. To get to Hobbiton, you have to take a tour.

I thought that the price of $75 per person would put Arthur off, but Hobbiton is not to be missed, no matter what the price. 

Once paid up, they give you directions to the Shire's Rest, where the tour begins. It's a touristy spot with a café and gift shop. I'd feared that we'd be driven around it in a bus and forbidden from taking pictures, but it is a guided walking tour and you can take as many pictures as your camera's battery life will allow. 

Our guide was a young man called Christy. It was his summer job before going off to uni. All the students want to work at Hobbiton - it's seen as a really cool summer job.

We learned a lot about how they made the films and the sheer lengths they went to in order to get just the right look for Middle Earth. For example, there is supposed to be an oak tree above Bag End but you don't get oak trees in New Zealand. At one point Sir Peter Jackson was considering having all the leaves ripped off another tree and false oak leaves glued on, but someone must have protested against cruelty to trees, and so they made an oak tree out of silicon instead, and each leaf was hand made, painted twice and individually glued on. From a distance it is virtually indistinguishable from a real tree, although when the wind blows its movement doesn't look quite natural.

The hills around the location belong to a sheep farmer, and since Sir Peter didn't think the sheep he had on the farm looked quite right, they had to be rounded up and hidden away while a load of sheep that Sir Peter believed looked the part were shipped over from Britain. Arthur commented that this was some feat given that us ordinary people can't even bring a single apple into New Zealand, yet Sir Peter Jackson can bring in a whole flock of sheep! I suppose if you have as much money as Sir Peter Jackson you can do almost anything. 

The lichen on the fences isn't real, either. It's made of paint, paper and yoghurt. The yoghurt was added to encourage growth of real lichens in due course. It was someone's job to go and paint all the fences with this stuff.

Sir Peter also insisted that the lines of hobbit washing were put out every day and taken in every night, so that a natural path would be worn up to the washing lines.

Not all the hobbit holes on the site were in the films. A number of extra ones were built "in case" but they weren't needed in the end.

The doors of the hobbit holes open, but there is nothing inside them - the interior scenes were all filmed in a studio in Wellington.

The hobbit holes vary in size - full size so that human actors playing hobbits look the right size in them, and smaller ones so that human actors playing humans can walk past and look bigger.

A Hobbit hole

One reason why this particular location was chosen was because it had an enormous symmetrical tree which was perfect as the Party Tree.

The Party Tree

Also on the site is the replica of the Green Dragon Pub which isn't in Hobbiton but somewhere else, as Arthur was quick to point out when I posted on Facebook that Arthur's birthday drink this year was at the Green Dragon in Hobbiton, and where was everybody? The tour ends with a drink there, beer, cider or a soft drink.

Arthur's birthday drink in the Green Dragon

The bar of the Green Dragon

The Green Dragon

Hobbiton even has a resident cat, called Pickle. 

Pickle, Hobbiton's resident cat

Of course, our deviation from the planned route meant that we were not on the road into Rotorua that we were supposed to be on and so the directions on the itinerary were therefore rendered useless, so it took us a while to find The Lake House, our next stop.

The Lake House is owned by Ken and Carol from Wolverhampton, and they made us very welcome. Carol is a talented artist - she had painted a number of the paintings on the walls. The room was in the house rather than the cottage arrangement we were becoming accustomed to. 

The room had patio doors which opened onto their garden, and at the bottom of their garden was a lake with a small island in it (again, there were kayaks you could borrow to go paddling on the lake). They even had their own little beach. 

The Lake House

View from the Lake House

The bottom of the garden at The Lake House

However, the bottom of their garden is a right of way so anyone can walk through. 

There was a lemon tree with lemons on it and a spa with a hot tub - the first one I've seen where you don't have to endure minus forty degree temperatures in order to get in and out of it! We didn't think there would be time to take advantage of that, though as there was quite a lot planned for us in Rotorua.

Lemon tree

We enjoyed a cup of tea and warm, homemade banana muffins with our hosts in their plush lounge and got their advice on where we could go and eat later.

Rotorua is a larger place so lots of choice of places to eat. We wandered around for a bit and eventually chose the Indian Star and had a curry.

Day 19: 28 November: Rotorua

Today we were supposed to be picked up by a seaplane at the bottom of the garden for a scenic flight, but it got cancelled because of the weather, which was a shame.

Lady Knox Geyser and Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland

Still, there were plenty of other things to do. Once we knew the flight was off, Ken and Carol suggested we went to the Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Park, where you can walk around and view all the volcanic features. 

There is a geyser there called the Lady Knox Geyser that goes off at 10.15 every day, and if we got a move on we could just about get there in time to see that.

We rushed and got there, and learned that the geyser doesn't go off on its own at such a regular time each day - it's all staged. It was discovered, we were told, when some Maori women were doing their laundry in the hot springs, and the detergent they were using triggered an eruption, much to their great surprise! So at 10.15 each day a man gives a talk about the history and points out the distinction between a geyser and a geezer, and then pours in some detergent to make the thing go off.

Lady Knox Geyser

After that, there is a walk you can do around the park to see and photograph features such as the Champagne Pool, the Rainbow Crater (which is not quite as colourful as its name suggests), the Artist's Pallette (ditto, but still interesting), Bridal Veil Falls and the Devil's Bath (a pool of lurid yellow water).

A volcanic crater

The Devil's Bath

The Champagne Pool

The Artist's Pallette

Rotorua is essentially sitting on top of an active volcano and is known for its hot springs. Even in the centre of town you can see steam coming up from patches of green and from the drains, and often you get a whiff of rotten eggs as you're driving around. Strange place to build a town, but it doesn't seem to bother any of the residents.

The volcano erupted in 1886, and destroyed a popular feature which we understand may have been a bit like Pamukkule in Turkey.

It was raining on and off as we were walking around and there was a cloudburst just as we were walking back to the car to go and see the mud pools, a pond full of what appears to be boiling mud.

It was all fascinating to see, and we wouldn't have done it if the flight had gone ahead as planned, as tomorrow we would have been moving on to the next place.

After lunch in a nice Italian café in town, we went back to the Lake House and made use of the hot tub before having tea and lemon muffins with our hosts.

In the evening we were booked in for an evening of Maori culture and a traditional meal. Luckily this was something that didn't depend on the weather.

Maori evening

I'd been looking forward to learning about Maori culture, because I didn't know much about it really; I think Arthur was a little unsure as the local "cultural experience" evenings in some places we've been in the past have not been to his taste. However, this one was done very well and we really enjoyed it.

We were picked up from the Lake House by a lady with a minibus. Her name sounded to me like "Deer's Rains". We were first to be picked up and she said she had two more stops. At the first, we picked up another German couple, called Matthew and Claudia. New Zealand seems to be a very popular destination for people from Germany.

Then we drove around for a while and at the next stop, who should get on but the couple we met in Eggscentric the other night!

At the Maori village, were were taken into a large marquee which could house a large wedding reception, and assigned to our tables. Matthew and Claudia were sitting with us, but the others were a few tables away. There was a bar, and an elderly gentleman was playing Abba tunes on a saxophone! Very traditional, I'm sure! I went to the bar and got a bottle of wine.

There was a compère who kicked things off by asking where everybody had come from, and doing a running tally of how many nations were represented. All the usual suspects - England, Scotland (though nobody from Ireland, it seemed), US, Australia, Germany, Holland, France; there was a large party from Auckland, and a few less likely places like Brazil, Bolivia and North Korea and someone even claimed to have come from Iraq. Others had come from various Pacific islands, and counting each one of those as a separate nation, the total came to 23.

The compère was very gifted with languages. He spoke all the main ones, English, German, French, Spanish, Dutch - at least he knew "welcome" and "chocolate cake" in all of the languages. When it came to Scotland he said "Och aye the noo" and "It's a braw, bricht, moonlit nicht", and gave even the obscure places his best shot at a greeting and a cultural reference.

After the introductions, were were all taken outside for a traditional unveiling of the meal, or hangi. The meat and potatoes (ordinary and the traditional Maori sweet potato) had been cooking all day, along with stuffing "for the English". It was all covered with cloth and there was a ceremonial unveiling. 

The Maori feast unveiled

After that we were taken to see a Maori canoe, about the length of a bus, and given a little talk on the canoes. Then we all went down to the river where a bunch of young men in full Maori warrior gear rowed a canoe past the audience, chanting a war chant as they went. That was impressive.

Maori warriors in their canoe

Then we went to see the show (so our white wine was not going to be chilled anymore by the time we got back to it). There was a stage, which had no back wall and was open to the outdoors, where a construction of a Maori village had been built complete with several straw hits, a totem pole and a cooking fire. As we were taking our seats, men and women in costume were walking around on stage, as if going about their daily business. 

Maori village

The compère was on stage with two members of the audience who had been selected to represent the audience, or "the tribe of many nations", and to receive a formal welcome from the Maori Chief on stage as they would have greeted friendly visitors in years gone by.

There were demonstrations of dances, games of skill the Maori children would play, such as jumping over sticks, which actually prepared them for having to run about in the forests, dodging the roots of trees. The women were swinging things that looked like white balls on the end of ropes, not unlike giant "clackers" for those who remember the 70s toy. They could make sounds with them like galloping horses or even a train.

The Chief, a guy possibly in his 40s, wearing very little apart from tattoos on his bottom and legs, and a loin cloth, gave a welcome speech in Maori and then a chat in English about Maori history. He explained how they used to do the tattoos, using a chisel, and opening the healing scars up several times which sounded really painful. However, the skills for doing that have largely been lost so nowadays they are done with a needle like any other tattoo.

Maori warrior

They sang some songs, and of course, did a Haka. They told us that every tribe had its own Haka, and there were different ones for different occasions, such as when a new Chief was inaugurated. Later in the holiday someone we met on one of our excursions said that this was the sanitised version of what the Haka was and that the actions and movements were indeed very warlike and represented what the warrior was going to do to his enemy, and after that what he was going to do to their women!

Back to the show, and the two selected audience members were required to say something in response to the Chief's greeting. One of the two was from Nigeria and was able to say some words in Nigerian that his own tribe would have used in such circumstances. They were very impressed by that.

When we got back the food had been laid out buffet style with sides and salads as well. The food was plain but delicious, with a slightly smoky flavour. The potatoes were especially nice. Possibly some of the nicest potatoes I've ever eaten.

When we first arrived, some people, including us, had been given orange stickers, and we weren't quite sure what they meant. It turned out that those with the stickers had booked, or been booked on, a wildlife walk with a guide through a nature park. As I said, if there were any extras to be had, Beyond the Blue had added them for us.

Our guide, Gene, first took us to a pool which was very clear, and had water bubbling into it from the volcanic springs, and some fish. The he turned out all the lights so we could see the glow worms around the edge of the pool.

We learned all about the kiwi bird. Unlike any other bird, the kiwi's nostrils are at the end of its beak and not at the top. This means it can sniff out the grubs and the things in the soil that it eats. The long beak can detect vibrations as well, which also helps it find food.

The females are bigger than the males, and that is because they lay huge (in proportion to their body size) eggs. The female kiwi lays an egg that is one third her body weight. In fact, she generally lays two in a clutch. That is the equivalent, said Gene, of a human woman giving birth to a four year old child. Once she'd laid her eggs, the female abandons them so the male hatches them, but then he clears off as well and the chicks have to fend for themselves from day one. 

That is one reason why they are so endangered now, because all the animals the various settlers introduced would prey on them. Stoats, for example, were brought over to keep the rabbit population down, but the stoats quickly learned that a defenceless kiwi chick was a much easier meal than a fast moving rabbit.

So it is very rare to see a kiwi in the wild and most New Zealanders have probably never seen one.

We were taken into an enclosure where there were kiwis. They were still hard to see, even when you knew they were there, but I did spot one. We were told not to take photographs, even without a flash, because these birds are apparently so shy that if someone takes their picture they go off their food for weeks.

After than we walked through another aviary, where there must have been parrots. We couldn't see them, but as we entered, we heard them say "Hello!" and as we came out the other end, we heard, "'Bye!"

Gene showed us a bird called a Jenny Rua which is more common in the South Island. This particular one had been hand reared by a human male and had imprinted on him to the extent that when they tried to breed her, she rejected all the males of her own kind so violently that she now has to live in isolation.

We saw lizards who have evolved so that the adults come out by day but the juveniles are nocturnal - because if the two ever met, the adults would eat the young ones.

Day 20: 29 November: Rotorua

Seaplane flight

We'd re-booked the seaplane flight for today in the hope the weather would have improved. Carol and Ken were optimistic that it would happen today. They were telling us that several of the pilots had children. To be fair, this was relevant because that's how their daughter knew them, but I couldn't help thinking, I don't need to know whether they have children. I just want to know if they can fly a plane!

There was no phone call, as there had been yesterday, to say it was off, so I went to the bottom of the garden to look out for the seaplane. 

Sure enough, it arrived and taxied right up to the shore. Carol and Ken had joked that we'd have to swim out to it, but thankfully that wasn't the case. The pilot, Angela, jumped out and pulled the plane even closer to the beach. (She was one of the ones with children, and I can vouch for the fact that she could fly the plane, too.) All we had to do was step up onto the floats and from there it was a couple of steps up into the plane.

The sea plane arrives at The Lake House

A couple from Hungary were already on board. They didn't speak English so we couldn't talk to them much.

Take off was quite bumpy but once airborne it was less bumpy than the first flight. We flew over Rotorua International Airport, which qualifies as an international airport because it has two flights a week to Sydney.

Rotorua International Airport

We flew over Rotorua and over some beautiful lakes and up to the crater of the volcano that erupted in 1886. In the distance we could see the White Island, which is the currently active volcano, smoking away out at sea.

Rotorua from the air

A view from the sea plane

Volcanic crater from the air

We returned to the lake and took pictures of the Lake House from the air while Carol was taking pictures of us getting off the plane, so we could later swap pictures by email.

Getting off the seaplane

After watching the plane take off again we set off for Napier. This was a fairly long drive and we'd been warned that there was a long stretch with no petrol stations and no mobile reception, so it was advisable to fill up first. 

Ken told us which was the cheapest petrol station and also recommended a stop at Huka Falls.

Huka Falls

Huka falls is a stretch of river where turquoise water rushes through a narrow gully. A horizontal waterfall, Ken called it. It was certainly worth a stop there to take pictures and listen and watch the power of the water. 

Huka Falls