From Middle Earth to the middle of the earth

In the end, we had a night off campsites and spent Saturday night in a familiar spot: the Auckland Airport Holiday Inn.  A good bed, shower and unlimited WiFi helped restore our spirits and in the morning we set off south, destination: Matamata.  Tomtom said we had a couple of hours drive ahead, long enough to get to know our new vehicle.

Thankfully the roads are a lot wider and easier to drive than in the Northland, and we watched the rolling countryside all around us.  It is extraordinary how green and unspoilt this country still is, but then being a similar size to the UK, with a population of 4.5 million, it's not that surprising. 

Hobbiton!!

Matamata, our destination, is known for 3 things:  horse breeding, farming, and the location of Middle Earth, the home of the Hobbits in the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit trilogies.  It's sounds like a bit of touristy thing to do, but I'd had on good authority that Hobbiton is a Must See.  In fact, it's the biggest non-natural tourist attraction in New Zealand and with good reason.  We found a lovely little self-contained campsite ('self-contained' refers to the vehicle type, rather than the parking - IOW, vehicles which have their own power, water and toilet are self-contained and can park in places which do not provide those facilities externally), reserved a spot for the night and headed into town.  The i-centre (aka tourist centre) in Matamata is fashioned as a hobbit hole - rather well in fact - and we went straight in to book our overpriced tour.  Lucky move as we bagged a couple of spots on the last afternoon tour the same day, which actually meant that instead of the high season number of 300-400 people at Hobbiton at any one time, there were only about 80. Both of us were completely enchanted by Hobbiton. It is a really beautiful place, constructed with such attention to detail that you can completely imagine it being inhabited by Frodo, Bilbo and Sam.  It took the location scouts 3 years to find the land, complete with the big party tree and field, the lake and the appropriate hill, at the top of which they put Bilbo Baggins' hole and built a tree above it.  That tree is the only thing that isn't natural at Hobbiton, even the veg gardens have been planted with veg and the potter, seamstress, saddler etc all have authentic Hobbit artifacts around their holes.  The pub, the Green Dragon, was added a few years ago and is a fully functioning venue, inside and out (unlike the 44 hobbit holes which don't have working interiors), and again the attention to detail is incredible.  Notices of Hobbiton events and items for sale, and even Sam Gangee's graffiti have been created.  Along with a working watermill and Middle Earth beer: South Farthing.  Apparently they brewed a specific brew for the actors to drink on set, but at only 1% alcohol.

Interesting fact:  When Hobbiton was built for the Lord of the Rings, it was all made out of polysytrene and it was in the contract with the farm to remove it all after filming.  But about half way through the tear-down, the weather got so bad they had to put a 6 month hold on the tear-down. And during this time, a number of locals approached the farmer, wanting tours of what was left.  So when Peter Jackson came back to film The Hobbit, they agreed to build Hobbiton for real.  It took 2 years and everything is permanent, 12 acres housing 44 hobbit holes of varying sizes, washing lines, signposts, children's games, gardens, water wells - they've thought of everything.  You'd be mad to come here and miss it.

The next morning we continued our journey south.  Through Rotorua and onwards to Taupo.  It was on the road out of Rotorua, where we stopped to pick up a hitchiker. (It seems a bit selfish to drive around in our monster truck on our own!) Christina was a 26 year old from Dusseldorf, who arrived in New Zealand a week ago, and has found herself a job at the high end Chateau Tongariro Hotel, in the Tongariro National Park. We had been told by a local friend of a friend that The Chateau was worth visiting, so decided that we may as well provide a taxi service to her new employment, starting
the next day.  So together, the 3 of us headed onwards.  We stopped just before Taupo, at Craters of the Moon, marvelling at the jets of steam emanating from the sunken mud beneath us. While we were on a walkway, we were effectively walking on a massive underground steam chamber, mud bubbling up every now and again, along with regular doses of spitting and hissing steam.

At Christina's suggestion, we also stopped off at Huka Falls, an impressive falls in the Waikato River that drains Lake Taupo. A few hundred metres upstream from the Huka Falls, the Waikato River narrows from approximately 100 metres across into a canyon only 15 metres across. The torrent of water coursing through this relatively tiny gap in the rocks creates a superb washing machine effect.  Turquoise blue water and foaming wash swirl through, creating an stupendous noise and spray. I could sit and watch it for hours. 

'Mount Doom'

This entire valley is volcanic, part of a zone from the north coast down to Ruapehu in the middle of the North Island. Geysers and sulpherous steam vents are supplemented by a series of volcanic mountains, which were in our sights as we headed south. 3 active volcanoes: Tongariro, Ngauruhoe (Mount Doom in “The Lord of the Rings" films) and Ruapehu with its ski slopes are all feature of the Tongaro National Park and as we headed towards The Chateau, nestled below Tonagariro, we couldn't quite believe that it was even allowed to built in such pristine volanic surrounds. But then again, it was built in the 1920s.  It would never be allowed now. Consequently, the hotel retains that early 1900s faded glamour.  As hordes of Japanese and Koreans arrived, we dropped off Christina to her new life, and having checked into the (limited) wifi, decided to go up the deserted mountain road for sunset.  The top of the road ends in a deserted ski resort. We stopped in Car Park Number 10, for an hour or so.  A beer, dinner and a glorious sunset set us up for the drive back to a lovely DOC nature reserve camping ground.  Secluded and quiet, we have finally properly worked out how to camp in NZ. Happy. For now.

The view from Carpark Number 10

Tomorrow we head for Ohakune, from where we will embark on our 3 day canoing trip down the Whanganu River.  Am I at all nervous? NO!  Not a bit.  Erm.