Days 22 and 23 Carins, Sydney, Auckland and Hobbiton

Days 22 and 23 Carins, Sydney, Auckland and Hobbiton

We were at the Cairns airport with plenty of time to spare before our 9am flight – despite not getting up until nearly 7…(That’s the way to run an airport…okay, it’s very small…)

Less than 3 hours to Sydney where we had a bit of a layover…not that long as it turned out because getting from the domestic terminal to the international terminal turned out to be a little of a mission - - and cost £5.80 each, cutting down the coffee money we had held back for the day! Not even JFK and Heathrow charge to go between terminals!  We weren’t the only ones surprised….we saw a succession of tourists try to board the terminal link transport only to be sent back to purchase a ticket, some looking quite panicked.

The flight from Sydney to Auckland only took another 3 hours – but with all the time changes during the day, we didn’t arrive in Auckland until 11:30pm….after all public transport had finished.  There isn’t much public transport in Auckland, anyway….apparently the city ripped out all of it’s tramlines in the 1980s because they wanted to be a ‘modern city like Los Angeles’. Great….apparently there are 1.5 million people (over 30% of the total population of the country) in Auckland and 1 million cars.  The only way to get into the city, therefore, was a VIP taxi that cost $90….whoa, what a welcome. If we had travelled from the UK with the rest of our tour group, the airport transfer would have been included….we didn’t realise at the time what a perk that was….

Checking in to our hotel at that time of the evening was a breeze….and we had a note telling us that we would be collected at 6:45 for our visit to Hobbiton.  One of the reasons Rob wanted to visit NZ was to see Hobbiton – and it isn’t on our tour, so I had made our own arrangements….but it did mean only about 4 hours’ sleep…..

We left seeing the sights of Auckland (Skytower – the tallest building in the southern hemisphere – and its ‘bungee’ jumpers, Skycity shopping, the historical harbour area and ‘One Tree Hill’ until the afternoon and boarded our ‘Hobbiton Express’ tour bus right on time.  Our guide, Dion, gave us a really good introduction to NZ in his running commentary for the 2 ½ hour drive.  Hobbiton, itself, was much more interesting than I had expected….Peter Jackson is quite a perfectionist and it really looks as though the Hobbits have just gone out for the day. 

Jackson had used aerial photography to search for just the right spot – a sheep farm near the horse-racing and rowing centre of Cambridge and small town of Matamata. The owner of the farm was first luke warm….they had interrupted his viewing of a rugby match to ask if they could visit….but now runs one section of the farm as a tourist attraction.  The set for ‘The Lord of the Rings’ film was temporary, but so many people came to see it when it had only partly been dismantled that the farm owner’s stipulation for allowing ‘The Hobbit’ was that the set should be properly built….to last 50 years.  The NZ army was offered for assistance, building the roads and bridges, hollowing out hobbit holes and using the soil to form the field from swampland around ‘Party Tree’.  They were also cast as Orcs. Jackson actually had the oak tree at Bag End made….steel, styrofoam and plaster trunk and branches…with 200,000 plastic leaves held on with wire…   

Later, after the farmer had received dozens of requests for use of Hobbiton as wedding and party venue, he had a replica of the Green Dragon Inn built on the edge of the lake, just where it belongs – and commissioned a local brewery to make a special ale, cider and ginger beer.

We walked the paths of Hobbiton and took photographs at many of the sights of key events from the films, then had a drink in the Green Dragon and lunch in a marquee in the garden.  

After the obligatory visit to the gift shop, we clambered back aboard the bus for the drive back to Auckland – only stopping to try Hokey Pokey ice cream….a NZ variety that is vanilla with chips of butterscotch….very nice indeed!

We spent a bit of time this afternoon seeing the city and then went down to meet up with our tour group for the next 3 weeks……