A Little Trip to Hobbiton

Well, I suppose this is where I reveal my Lord of the Rings nerdiness. In case you didn't already know, I am a big fan! And I made it to Hobbiton! Such a cool place and so happy I got to see it in person. A group of 6 of us in the BU program decided to take a bus 3 hours from Auckland to Matamata, aka Hobbiton. This was two days after I got back from the Geography trip to Northland. The scenery along the way was composed of pastureland and mountains in the background.

Once we arrived, the entire area was made up of rolling hills of farmland, and I could immediately see why it was picked for the location. We were only allowed in with a tour so we had a guide but we sort of lost him halfway through, oops. So we were left to our own devices to explore and appreciate all 40 hobbit holes. 

Sam and Rosie's House

The Party Tree

 

We were allowed to go inside one of the holes which was pretty neat, but unfortunately not Bag-End although it was pretty epic to even be outside it. Every hobbit hole is unique and has been aged so that it feels like the community has been there forever. They told us that someone was paid to walk up a pathway in the morning, hang laundry on a clothesline, and in the evening walk back and take it down for a year just so that there would be an authentic worn footpath. Talk about attention to detail. There was also moss on the fences and worn doors to obtain the aged feel. 

Bag End

Couldn't resist

After walking around Hobbiton, we ended our stay with a visit to the Green Dragon Pub for a drink and afterwards, I played "Concerning Hobbits" on my tin whistle to fully set the mood.

 Here's a clip of me playing at Hobbiton.

 After some second breakfast in town, we headed back to Auckland. Such a great day with friends and sheep in Middle-Earth. So I have made it to the start of the Ring's journey, and I definitely plan to make it to Mount Doom so stay tuned for that adventure sometime later in the semester. I've brought Geena's ring from the board game Lord of the Rings Risk with me to New Zealand so we shall see if I end up getting to destroy it at Mount Doom. Until then, I shall 'keep it secret, and keep it safe'.

Geography Trip Around Northland

I have been so bad in keeping this updated, I apologize! Since my last post about my first day-trip around Auckland to beaches and through forests, I have done a lot. The day to day living in Auckland includes classwork and exploring, as well as experimenting in the kitchen. It is the summer session of classes at the University of Auckland, and I am taking one course, Geography 207 during the summer here in addition to a sociology course about New Zealand Politics, Society, and Maori Culture that all of us in the BU program take. The geography class is a field class where most of our learning took place on a weeklong trip we took around Northland. Here is a map of the North Island and Northland to give you an idea of where I went. 

 

The course has about 60 students, and we were divided into 7 different vans with approximately 8 students in each van. The vans developed names and rivalries throughout the trip and were decked out with tape on the windows. The van names were: NirVANah, Roman VANdals, Pirates of the CarribeVAN, GeoDudes, Gretals's Petals, Krazy Horses and my van, It's Raining Men and Miles (We were a van randomly of all girls and one guy named Miles). In addition, Nick, one of the lecturers drove a separate "Kai Waka" as we dubbed it (Kai is food in Te Reo (the Maori language) and Waka is canoe) or food van.

On the trip, we drove up the east coast of Northland and circled back down along the west coast. The east coast is more developed and touristy while the west coast is more rugged and wild. This is due to many interacting factors involving social history as well as geomorphology. On the east coast we stopped at two different beaches where we took some beach measurements including wave height, dune height, dune vegetation, and beach angle. After, we were allowed to just hang out on the beach and have some lunch. These were the most beautiful beaches I've been to/seen. They were called Lang's Beach, and Matai Bay, but Matai Bay in particular was gorgeous. 

Lang's Beach

 

Lang's Beach

Lang's Beach

Lunch at Matai Bay

The first night we stayed at hostels in the Bay of Islands town of Paihia. We had pizza for dinner where the seagulls would steal your food if you didn't guard your plate carefully. We didn't stay here long, the next day we had breakfast on the beach and did a field exercise analyzing the tourism of the area then headed out to the town of Kawakawa which is famous for its public toilets which were designed by the artist Hundertwasser. 

Evening in Paihia

Devilish seagull at dinner

Down the street from our hostel in Paihia

I didn't get a good picture of the toilets so here's one courtesy of Google

And another :-)

Joe, the main geography lecturer/trip coordinator is from here and told us a story about how Hundertwasser was friends with his grandfather and would often stay with them on his grandfather's farm. He told us how one summer he was painting Hundertwasser's boat and spent so long using tape to try and make a straight line when Hundertwasser came over and asked why he was doing that, then said "Straight lines lead to Hell" and walked away. The toilets are really funky with glass bottles inlaid in cement and wavy mosaic everywhere. No straight lines can be found anywhere, even the floor is wavy. The way Joe talked about Hundertwasser reminds me a bit of my Uncle Stephen, a crazy creative personality. The second night we camped out at Aroha Island, a Kiwi Sanctuary. After a barbeque, we went out with red cellophane tinted flashlights and looked for kiwis. I sat for an hour silently hoping to see one and a lot of people did but I only managed to hear them calling to each other. Oh well, it was still a great time! The rocky beach on the island was so peaceful and I spent some time doing origami while there. 

The third day we went to Ngawha Springs, which has natural hot springs you can go in. The smell of sulfur didn't dissaude many from testing how hot they could stand.

The third night was my favorite night. We crossed over to the west coast full of windy dirt roads and stayed on a marae, which is a Maori ceremonial community area. One of our van drivers, Geremy is Maori from this particular Motuti Marae and we went through an official welcome that involved an exchange of oratory in Te Reo and also an exchange of songs. Every day leading up to this, all 60 of us practiced learning two Maori waiatas or songs to sing to the people at Motuti Marae, now they are stuck in my head! While on the marae, we ate a huge feast of delicious food and met some very heartwarming people. We all slept on mattresses in one big room and before sleeping we all individually stood up and introduced ourselves and said a little about our families and ourselves. It was really special hearing everyone talk. 

Motuti Marae

During the day...

...and at night!

I had fun in the mattress room at the marae

The next day we took a ferry over to Hokianga Harbor which has enormous sand dunes. The little town of Opononi was famous for one summer in 1956 when a lone dolphin Opo would play with people in the harbor.

Sand Dunes across the water

Hokianga Harbor

 We checked out 90 mile beach (which is actually 90 km) and then hopped into the vans and headed out to the big kauri preservation forests of Waipou and Trounsen. Here we heard a talk from the closest I've seen to a hobbit thus far, Stephen King, a conservationist who runs barefoot through the forests and is replanting kauri for future generations. We also got to see 2000 year old Tane Mahuta, the largest kauri tree in New Zealand.

Tane Mahuta

 For the last night we stayed in a hotel in Dargaville which was pretty much a ghost town. Apparently the queen has stayed in the hotel we were in, well don't I feel fancy! We had a buffet dinner and the lecturers gave out silly prizes. The last day we drove back to Auckland where I promptly collapsed on my bed and slept for what felt like a week. 

It was a really great trip! I met a lot of new Kiwi friends and in the process learned some stuff (imagine that!). Northland is considered the poorest region of New Zealand and often overlooked, but it had a lot to offer. I definitely made some wonderful memories.