days 4 and 5

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After my time in Paihia, I went back down through Whangerei, near Auckland. Whangerei is just a small city without much fanfare, I stopped to see their waterfall, and then continued on my way. The next day I woke up and boarded a ferry to Tiri Tiri island. It's a very small island about 10 miles or so north of Auckland. It used to be farmland until it was overgrazed, and the lease was up. At that point, volunteers were able re-grow a lot of the fauna and claimed it as a nationally protected island. This island is renowned for the many birds that call it home while it was farmed, and the few that have come back after it was protected land.

the only way to access the island is on the ferry I took, and they only take a limited amount of people per day, to help protect the island. All the money spent getting there goes towards the volunteers who keep the island up. It was very pretty and had some awesome remote spots. I hiked the whole island, then hung out at the only beach on the island, Hobbs.

I returned back to my car, parked it in a parking structure, and went out to explore Auckland for the night. Auckland is like any other big city, a lot of the big restaurants are down by the wharf, lots of tall buildings, and loud noises. There are 2 parts of the wharf, and it's still easy to spot the old train tracks that used to carry crates off the ships. They also have a sky tower (like any other tall, skinny, architecturally pretty structure) that you can go up, and also lean over in a harness. I walked all the over the downtown area, before I went back to the parking garage, and slept in the car again.

Once I got up the next day, I drove down to MataMata. This is the infamous farming area where Hobbiton is. This was probably the most tourist thing I did the whole time in New Zealand. They literally have groups going out, in full buses, every half hour, for about 9 hours a day. They also have a cafe, ice cream shop, and gift shop while you wait. It was interesting to see the set, and how they filmed some scenes. At the end, you get to go to the prancing pony, and get 1 micro brew, that they apparently don't sell anywhere else. Interesting tidbits:

1. They took the whole set down after LOTR, and then re-built it for the hobbit.

2. They burnt down the whole prancing pony (huge set piece) for a scene that didn't even make it into the fellowship of the ring, it's during a dream sequence on the extended edition of the movie.

3. many of the NZ army play the orcs you see, but they got a little intense during filming, and scared the actors/actresses

4. All (yes all) of the hobbit holes meet NZ building codes. This means you can literally walk into (and technically live) in all of them if you wanted to, even though they don't let you.

5. Bilbo's hole is obviously the largest, and sets at the top of the entire set.

6. The farm it is on is still a working farm. There are still sheep grazing on it.

7. They have 2 man made ponds on the set.

8. Each hobbit hole is specific, the doors are different, the decorations are different, some are even painted different.

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