Featured Region- New Zealand’s North Island- Part Two

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The adventure starts out at a main gate, where you can visit a small canteen – no, it’s not called the Green Dragon, but that famous Hobbit haunt does appear later in the tour – with surprisingly reasonably-priced meals (the New Zealand dollar sat just under $1 CAD at the time of our visit). A quick tea and crumpet, and it’s on to the shuttle to the main park. During the 20-minute ride, all sorts of fun facts are presented by the tour guide with some video accompaniment (not to worry, kiddos — the darker/gorier parts of the movies aren’t shown as they don’t occur in the Shire scenes); the amount of Hobbit houses that appeared in the movie (44 of a total of 51 constructed); the backstory of the farmer that essentially came up with the idea for a park – it actually wasn’t from the great mind of Peter Jackson or anyone else associated with the movies – and more. It all makes for a great appetizer before the main event.

Bus ride complete, it’s time to complete the rest of the tour on foot and I’m not sure anything I can say here can prepare one for the experience. Going in, I envisioned a charming field with a few hills hosting the underground Hobbit holes but it is so much more than that. From the massive acreage it covers, to the way the guide encouraged us to act out certain scenes from the film (you can run down the same hill Bilbo runs down at the beginning of his adventure in the first Hobbit film; yell “I’m going on an adventure!” while you’re at it for maximum effect), to the Party Tree at the centre of the Shire and the chance to dance ‘round the maypole across from it – incredible.

Of course there’s the requisite movie sets; you can see both Samwise Gamgee’s home (check the functioning garden in front) as well as Bilbo’s Bag End residence but it’s the details ‘round the lesser Hobbit homes that really did it for me. Many featured props that showed each Hobbit’s profession; There’s the butcher’s house and his cart full of meats and cheeses; the seamstress’ clothesline; the jeweller’s display, the blacksmith’s anvil and the baker’s scrumptious selection of breads. You can’t set foot inside most of these (they are merely facades), but there is one that you can and it’s yet another “no WAY!” moment; Hobbit-sized bunkbeds, a tub complete with hot water stove, a pantry, dining hall and yes – a Hobbittoilet. It’s fantastic.

And that’s not all.

In addition to the bus ride and guide, the tour also includes drinks at the Green Dragon Pub – told you we’d be heading back there – beer for the adults, non-alcoholic cider for the kiddos. The beer served is brewed specially in New Zealand for serving here and here only. It’s actually a great microcosm of how New Zealand operates; being as isolated as it is, they do a lot of their own growing, their own brewing, their own clothes manufacturing – I spotted at least 12 potato chip varieties that were completely unique to this pair of long islands, and be sure to grab a few Whittaker’s chocolate bars for the trip home.

The tour ends where most tours like this do; in a gift shop where you can buy Gollum figurines in about 12 different sizes, Bilbo’s famed “No admittance except on party business” sign in door mat form and yes; bottles of that Southfarling Girdley Fine Grain amber ale they served in the pub. And hey, why not a couple of clay goblets while you’re at it? Come on! You can find a way to fit them in your carry-on!

Coastal Cruise

Our journey ends where you might expect: on the beach.

Only – as has been the case throughout this adventure – it’s not quite what you think.

New Zealand has its fair share of what you might call “classic” beaches – white sand, turquoise water et. al. – so much so that we visited probably eight beaches over 12 days during our trip. Of particular note, however, was a beach simply called Hot Water Beach. Essentially, what we have here is a beach sitting directly atop a hot spring. Setting up camp requires more than umbrellas and beach chairs. Here, a shovel is the order of the day because the thing to do is get there and dig, creating miniature hot tubs for your group right there on the beach. Be careful, though; so volatile is the situation, that a given pool can be tolerable one moment and so hot the next as to have you sprinting into the surf – the best surf we saw on our trip, actually – at lightning speed. It was as un-beachy a day as you can get – rainy, windy, grey – but having your own private hot tub sure helps.

If that’s not enough volcanic activity for you, then a visit to the charming lakeside town of Rotorua and the Waimangu Volcanic Valley about 20 minutes away should whet your appetite. Here, a number of walks through delicate hot springs and volcanic soil is a wonderful, colourful dive into that geothermal world. Pink pools the size of football fields and deep craters all bubbling with volcanic soil – not to mention the majestic steam plumes, thick enough to engulf you in a warm (but somewhat smelly) embrace.

Even a walk through one of the quiet neighbourhoods of Rotorua itself – a town of about 77,000 – reveals steaming drain covers and backyards with their own hot spring pools. If you’re looking to once again tap into the Māori story, a walk to the town’s Ōwhata marae Village offers a colourful look into the culture. It also offers a sombre one, as there is the Ōhinemutu war memorial, dedicated to Māori that fought in both World Wars.

Our end point before sprinting back to Auckland International was the breathtaking coastal town of Hahei, a town that sounds like a certain clumsy Disney chicken (see: Moana), but don’t let that stop you. Hahei is a tantalizing mix of a surfers’ paradise, a hikers’ paradise as it’s essentially built into the side of a mountain and a beachcombers’ paradise. Be sure to visit the charming retail sector that features ice cream stands, sandwich shops, a general store and a gas station. It’s a great way to start your day, or to take a break from the coastal motorboat cruises, sandy beaches and that other neat feature of being built into a mountainside – seaside caves.

These little pockets of wonder dot the entire coastline; one of the highlights of the boat cruise we took had us sailing directly into one (certain tides only), where we sat for a few minutes, surrounded by a vertical tunnel of rock climbing to the shore, 50 feet above. Many of these can also be accessed by walking along the beaches but beware: entire beaches can get cut off by rising tides. Unless you’re ready to swim back to the beachhead and the shore above, keep an eye out. This is where we saw our second-best surf of the trip, by the way.