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.

Auckland Adventures

Well today was definitely amazing. The geography teacher, and all around outdoor expert Joe led us on an outdoor adventure filled day. First we visited a beautiful beach at Mission Bay right outside the main Auckland city center where there were lots of volcanic rocks from the volcano Rangitoto that sits across the way. The water was light blue and the weather outside was again, gorgeous. Next we traveled to one of the many other volcanoes that Auckland sits atop, Mount Eden. Once we reached the summit, the view of the Auckland cityscape and surrounding bay, with the green mountain volcanoes set in the background was simply picturesque. 

After Mount Eden, we made our way to a nature reserve where we did a "bush walk" as the locals would say through a forest bursting with exotic plants that made you feel as though you had stepped back in time to when dinosaurs ruled the land. Here we saw some of the great kauri, majestic trees that grow very large, very slowly. New Zealand is having a problem with the kauri trees dying from bacteria spread to their surprisingly delicate roots for such a large tree. To avoid bringing any bacteria into contact with the trees, we had to spray our shoes with a special disinfectant before we entered and exited the reserve. Seeing the great kauri trees today was a great preview for my internship starting in March where I will be working with a professor who is studying them. The main plant type in this reserve were ferns; tree ferns, silver ferns, you name it, it was there. The silver fern is actually the symbol of New Zealand and appears on all the rugby sports teams in some fashion. I also spotted the fern that was featured on the cover of my AP Biology textbook in high school which was pretty exciting (Nerd alert). . I also managed to capture a picture of the wood pigeon which is essentially a beautiful version of your common pigeon.

500 year old Kauri

Fern from Bio Textbook

Wood pigeon!

After exiting the forest, our next stop was a secluded lake hugged by black sand dunes and green mountains. Walking through the dunes was fun in the black volcanic ash sand because it was so fine that it felt like dust more than sand. Some people swam in the lake, others attempted to touch the cows grazing on the mountain, and all of us enjoyed a nice lunch. After, we made our way to a large dune where we ran and jumped off and down the dune and came back covered in black. We then walked through a river which cooled our burning feet from the hot sand and made our way to Bethel's Beach, a black sand beach along the Tasman Sea. The beach was surrounded by caves and inlets and plenty for us to explore. Cricket was set up and played, and fun was had by all. 

After spending a couple hours here, we headed back to the apartments and washed up for a dinner and drinks at an irish pub courtesy of BU. Now I am nursing some very blistered feet and drinking a nice cup of tea with some biscuits before bed. And oh would you look at that, some black sand just poured out of my ear; this will certainly be an interesting night.

Best,

Malani