January 4, 2024
About 2 hours outside of Auckland is the movie set Hobbiton that was created for the Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit trilogy. The set is on the rolling hills of a 1200 acre sheep farm. There are 39 hobbit holes that were created into the hillside along with the Dragon Inn. The attention to detail including smoke machine that create the imagine that fires are burning in the homes makes you feel that you are immersed in the movies.
Welcome to my hobbit hole where I was busy writing my blog and baking sugar cookies!! Note to self do not attempt to teeter totter on a hobbit size board…getting up is really hard!!
The tour was truly magical!!
Next we were off to the Waitomo caves where we got to explore the ancient world 30 million years in the making and marvel at Mother Nature’s light display. We explored the cave by foot before embarking on a boat ride, gliding silently through the starry wonderland of the Glowworm Grotto. The serene ambience as we enter this galaxy of tiny living lights was amazing!! The glowworm (Arachnocampa Luminosa) is unique to New Zealand. Thousands of these tiny creatures as radiate their unmistakable luminescent light in a subterranean world. The ice strands are where the glow worms live. It looked like thousands of twinkle lights!! An incredible wonder of nature that I was blessed to experience!!
You make the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts look like wimps.
OMG!!! Those places are amazing! AND Glow worms! Never know they were real. Thank you so much for sharing. PS, did you get my Hobbit? 😉