G’day from down unda!

Well I made it to New Zealand and have survived my first few days here! The flights weren’t terrible, but stretch from Honolulu to Sydney was the longest flight I’ve been on in my non-infant life. I slept though half of it on and off, so it wasn’t terrible, but I had my dang space boot taking up 80% of my leg space, so it could’ve been better. Next time I’ll probably stick it in the overhead bin and bring a flip flop to wear to the bathroom. I say “next time” because traveling in a boot is awesome. I got wheel chair rides to all of my gates, skipped every line imaginable, and got an upgrade to the comfort section on my interisland flight so that I wouldn’t have to walk as far down the plane. Too bad that was for the shortest of my three flights, but I’ll take it. It was almost annoying how attentive they were being – I waited until they dropped me off at my gates and then got up and walked to the bathroom or to a food stand. I gotta stretch sometime! I was really enjoying the treatment on my first flight of the morning, from Hilo to Honolulu. They got me a wheelchair without me even asking and upgraded my seat and blah blah blah. I was pretty pleased with myself until the last passenger got on the plane – a double amputee they had to wheel all the way to his seat across the aisle from me. Aaaaand then I felt like an asshole.

Anyways, my long flight from Honolulu to Sydney was on Jetstar, which is a budget airline that I’d heard gives you absolutely nothing for free. No food, no water, no checked baggage, no seat choice, nothing. I was expecting the plane to be falling apart, like the opening scene to the TV show LOST. I prepared for a doomsday situation – brought my USB battery pack good for 10 full iphone charges, two water bottles full of water, two ham and cheese sandwiches, beef jerky, dried mangoes, a bag of pecans, a clif bar, and there was probably even an emergency flare in there somewhere for when we inevitably plummeted into the ocean on our plane that was probably made from salvaged parts. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that it was a newer model plane called the Dreamliner, which was pretty snazzy! The seats were 3-3-3 and everyone had an entertainment player at their seat. The entertainment player cost $10 to use, but there was a USB port on it so I could charge my phone and watch the movies that *I* brought! The windows were really big (bigger than normal) and there were no shades because they had adjustable tinting! It worked surprisingly well, and it was really nice because you could block the direct sunlight but still see outside. Wonderful. The people next to me clearly sprung for the works, because they had the “comfort package” delivered, which included a blanket and something else. Pillow maybe. Neither of them ended up using what they paid for, so that was a waste. They also paid for the entertainment players which was funny, because the selections were horrible. I did way better by putting movies and TV shows on my phone. The guy next to me started watching mine too, haha. The best part was when they came around to start serving lunch. They obviously have a list of who had pre-paid for food and went around serving those people first. When they got to our row, they handed me a package of shortbread and a little thing of water. I knew immediately that this was a mistake, so I ripped it open and stuffed my face before they could take it back. :) That was of course the appetizer, so when they came back with the entrees they apologized and said that they couldn’t give me one. I didn’t care – I still came out ahead!

Sky Tower, viewed
from my hotel

I had a short layover in Sydney, waited way too long for the city bus in Auckland, got to my hotel at 11:30pm, and crashed by midnight (which was 2am Hawaii time, meaning I had been up and traveling for 23 hours). I stayed at the Kiwi International Hotel. It was a very simple room – just a bed, sink, and desk, but I think it’s safe to say that that was the most comfortable bed I’ve ever slept in. It might have had something to do with the fact that I’d been napping in airplane seats all day, or that I’d been sleeping in a sleeping bag for the last seven months, or maybe it was just a really awesome bed. I put my earplugs in and slept like a baby. Fortunately I wasn’t jet lagged, just tired from the day of travel. Hawaii is two hours ahead but a day behind, so I completely lost my Saturday. I left at the crack of dawn on Friday and arrived just before midnight on Saturday. Weird.

My first day in Auckland was very uneventful. I woke up at 7:30 but didn’t bother leaving my hotel until around noon. I got brunch at this little French place not far from my hotel, then wandered around to find out where my bus stop was for the next morning. Auckland is surprisingly hilly, so I wasn’t looking forward to doing the trek in my boot with all my bags. Eventually I wandered back to my hotel to rest and watch TV shows (I have a broken foot – don’t judge me!), and then went out again for dinner at Al’s Deli. I got this really delicious salad with roasted red peppers, goat cheese, chorizo, fried chicken, and some other stuff. After eating the last bits of food in my cupboard for a week in Hawaii (which didn’t include much in the way of fresh produce, if you can imagine), a good salad was exactly what I needed. That was also a good learning day for me – I learned that walking around a lot and not staying on top of my pain meds is a bad idea. My ankle swelled up from only a couple hours of walking, and it was hurting more than it ever had. Granted, I’d never walked for a couple hours on it, and I was always taking plenty of meds, so this was a bad combo. Good to get that figured out on a day that didn’t matter, because the next day was way more important!

I woke up early with the intentions of running across the street for a fresh bagel at Al’s in time to run back across the street, grab my bags, and catch a city bus most of the way to the InterCity bus stop and then walk the rest of the way. As soon as I saw the continental breakfast at my hotel I dropped all of those plans. Of course, as soon as I sat down with my plates of food I noticed a sign that said the breakfast was $15 to be paid at the bar. Dang it! But… no one ever showed up at the bar, so free breakfast! When I checked out the guy at the counter convinced me to just take a taxi straight to the bus station because the hills would kill me with the ankle AND the bags. He was probably right. The taxi driver was really nice – as soon as he saw my boot he ran up to help me with my bags. Funny, because he said “Oh I’m sorry, I didn’t notice your ankle at first!” like he wasn’t going to help me at all, until he noticed the boot. Whatever, I’ll take it! He even took my bag into the bus station for me. Nice guy! But no tipping in this country. Very strange to get good service and not reward the people for it. But the locals are very against it because they don’t want foreigners setting a precedent.

The Green Dragon

My bus left at 8am and took 3 hours to get to Matamata. Ever heard of it? It’s this little town of about 6,000 people settled somewhere in the countryside between Auckland and Rotorua. Why did I go there? Because it’s the starting point for tours heading to HOBBITON!! Day two of my trip and I was off to see the hobbits! It was a walking tour, so I wasn’t sure how I’d do, but it turned out just fine. Minor hills, slow pace, lots of stopping. Sheesh, do I sound old or what? Anyways, the countryside was beautiful! Everything was so green and lush. There were TONS of sheep all over the hillsides, and it being the start of spring there were little lambs EVERYWHERE! They were adorable and bitty. Our tour only had eight people on it, which was shocking. There were tours earlier in the day with over 30 people. The max they can take on a single tour is 41, which seems ridiculous; there’s no way they’d all be able to get their pictures in in the short amount of time that they stop at each hobbit hole and vista. We definitely lucked out with that one. Everyone on our tour had seen the movies, but I was the only one to read the books. We picked up our guide at the gift shop, where people who drive themselves meet up with the tours. From there we headed over a couple hills and then got our first glimpse of The Green Dragon (the bar).

First view of Hobbiton!

We parked at the bottom and then started our walk into Hobbiton along the path that Gandalf takes into town in his cart at the beginning of the Fellowship of the Ring; Frodo runs down to greet him on the hill by the path and says “you’re late”. Remember that? Well it was right there! There were hobbit holes of all sizes so that different actors could stand by them and make them seem shorter or taller. Each hobbit also had some occupation, and that was definitely evident based on the props surrounding each hobbit hole – the baker, gardener, cheese maker, bee keeper, etc. We got to see inside a couple hobbit holes, and I even got to go stand in a doorway, but for the most part all of these are external features with absolutely nothing inside. In fact most were made out of plywood and flimsy materials because they were going to deconstruct the whole set… until they realized that it could become an attraction. As a result they have to do the occasional maintenance, which was unfortunately the case during my visit – Bilbo’s famous house had a bunch of scaffolding right next to the door! But you still got the idea. They are also in the process of building an event center or something, so they had to drain the lake in order to lay the foundation. We didn’t get quite the same majestic view that Bilbo had from his house, but it was still pretty amazing. On our way out we walked by Sam’s original house and then the house he has at the end of The Return of the King, where he goes home to his wife and children (fun fact: the girl running to him was his actual daughter, and the baby Rosie was holding was her actual baby).

Bilbo's house!! Don't mind the scaffolding...

Sam's house that he shares with Rosie

The Green Dragon

Hmm, other interesting things I learned: the wood fences outside each house look super old, but they are barely 10 years old – just painted with vinegar and covered with a bunch of fake moss that they plastered and painted on! The tree on top of Bilbo’s house is fake and has a thousand fake leaves, each attached by hand (but when they filmed The Hobbit they had to change the tree and make it look 60 years younger). When Gandalf walks into Bilbo’s house and bumps his head in the beginning of The Fellowship of the Ring, that was totally accidental, but the actor stayed in character. The little pond near the garden was manmade, and after they made it a bunch of frogs moved in and were SO LOUD they could barely hear the actors, so they had to relocate the frogs for the duration of filming. The massive tree by the lake that was featured at Bilbo’s birthday party was the main feature that sold this place over 11 other candidate farms. The farm owner had to sign a confidentiality agreement before he was even told what the filming project was, and after being told it was for The Lord of the Rings he said “the lord of the what?”. And I think the last tidbit I remember is that when Merry and Pippin set off fireworks from the back of Gandalf’s cart, Pippin let out actual screams when they exploded, which they kept in the movie to his dismay. Phew! Whirlwind tour. But it wasn’t quite over – before leaving we got 20 minutes in The Green Dragon for a free drink! I got the Sackville Cider and bought a delicious cranberry and chocolate chip muffin. Definitely a great day.

At that point we went back to Matamata where I caught a bus to Rotorua where I’ll be for the next few days. Got several things planned while I’m here, so I’ll keep you posted!