The end of the holiday…

She Says:

Hobbiton……. is it really worth it?? Yes, if you love Lord of the Rings. The positives of the day are that you have your own tour guide, have a free drink on them and learn some great facts about how meticulous Peter Jackson is. For example, He chose the site as he flew over all of New Zealand because of one tree, and he burnt down the Green Dragon Pub 7 times whilst filming to get just the right shot. However, having done the Harry Potter experience,  I found it lacking. There were 41 people on each tour and your whole experience was on a time scale. It felt to commercialised to me. There must have been around 8 tours on at the same time as ours, so wherever you looked there were people. Now, I know it is a very small site compared to the vastness of Harry Potter studios in London, but to me it just was not as good. Though, my opinion may be biased, as I love everything Harry Potter.

At this point we were still staying in Rotorua, which still stinks. Actually found out from a local bus driver that his son can not stay in Rotorua due to the smell affecting his asthma so badly. Luckily, Ryan didn’t seem to have too much of an aversion to the smell. Though, I will say you think you’ve got used to it and then it hits you again. We had much planned for Rotorua, but we were on a time schedule so only did one other activity: we attended the Mitai Maouri Experience. It gave us great insight into how their country has developed since they first came to the shores from Polynesia. E.g. There language is very similar to Malaysian. They showed us how they built houses, how they greeted other tribes and how they developed songs to teach younger generations using the introduction of guitars to aid them. Arguably, the bit that made it worth it was the food experience, everything else we had seen in a museum and could find out from internet. There was just so much and it was nice to be able to try food they had cooked traditionally in the ground. As well talk with the Host. We chose the Mitai Maori village over the other one in Rotorua as it is a family run business.

That was our last planned experience, so we drove down to Wellington where we caught a Ferry across to Picton and travelled on to Blenheim as we have work. Wellington, is a typical city from my brief visit, with too much traffic and not enough places to park, but I’m hoping when we visit again I will get to experience everything it has to offer. Also, when we catch the Ferry again it won’t be in the early hours of the morning, so we can see the sights.

Anyway, you won’t be hearing from us for the next three weeks as we will be working at a tomato farm, gutting the old plants and planting fresh ones. Luckily, we have a hostel which has a pool to cool down from the hot weather 30 Degrees 🙂 Wish Ryan Luck in the heat !!

He Says:

I just want to start off by saying, that nobody should listen to that fanatic talk about LoTR above. She’s been obsessed with Harry Potter since she was about 6 years old, and I don’t think she can tell fiction from reality any more. HOBBITON WAS AWESOME. It doesn’t compare to the harry potter studios at all. I mean, what would you rather go see; a bunch of built for purpose exhibits in London, where the free for all tourists make it impossible to look at anything; or would you rather go and see a living, breathing set, that’s still exactly the same as it was when it was in the movies all those years ago. ( might I also mention the the butterbeer machine in London wasn’t working properly, however the alocohol being served at the Green dragon Inn was on point!). Case closed.

Anyway, enough of winding up the girlfriend. But she was right about one thing (again), Rotorua absolutely stinks. No area more so than the Geothermal wonderland that we did on Sunday. It was pretty cool to go around and see all the geological formations that had occurred as a result of the volcanic activity in the area, but I do wonder how interesting it really is to the average tourist that turns up and just sees a bunch of old smelly holes? Because that’s all they were really… just rotten-egg-shit-smelling giant holes. But like I said, i found them cool. Especially the Geyser!

The Mitai Maouri experience that we went on was pretty much summed up in its entirety by Victoria, all I would have to add myself is that if it wasn’t for our very knowledgeable and enthusiastic tour guide, it would felt a little bit too…. staged? It also seemed that during the shows and dances, that many of the group (noticeably the younger participants) would struggle to perform to the high standard that you would expect of a incredibly cultural and supposedly passionate demonstration. With props falling over, not being able to use all the apparatus properly, and just a little lack of enthusiasm.

The food was amazing though. After not eating large meals for a few days I took the opportunity to stuff my face, oh and boy did I stuff it. I felt so ill for hours afterwards. But like I said, yummy.

So that’s pretty much everything of note to talk about in this post. We spent the remainder of last week travelling down south, through Wellington, and hopped on a ferry across to the South Island, before venturing on to our current base of operations, Blenheim. The town itself seems nice enough, although the verdict is currently still out on the backpackers we currently find ourselves at. But that’s for next time.

It may be a while before you hear from us again, as its time to get back to work! (yay! greenhouse gutting!). But needs must, this trip isn’t going to pay for itself!

Arrivederci!