July 8 - Hobbiton

Our last day adventure in New Zealand was spent on the Hobbit/Lord of the Rings set. The farm where the filming was done is absolutely beautiful. It looks so peaceful with the sheep grazing all around it. Basically, the lodgings were empty shells, with nothing in the interiors. But, the details in the exteriors were amazing. Even though I'm not a fan of the movies, it was a pretty neat experience. The site is a 1250 acre sheep and beef farm with 39 Hobbit Holes. At the end of the tour we were treated to a mug of ginger beer.

Our last night of lodging is in Hamilton, and it will be a very short night. We have to stay in Hamilton,  about 2 hours from Auckland, because all the hotels are booked up for tonight's game. I know many of the students want to see at least the beginning haki of the All Blacks game. How much of the game they actually see will be determined,  as we are leaving the hotel at 4:00 a.m  to get to the airport.

As you can see, I'm up-to-date in pictures for all posts. :)








Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

July 10 - Bondi Beach, Opera House

Image
What a great day we had today! We started off the day at Bondi Beach, the world premiere site for surfing. We were told that some people will fly into Sydney just to go to Bondi Beach to surf and then fly home again. It was the picture perfect day to have surfing lessons at Bondi. The temperature wasn't too cold, although we did all have wetsuits just to ensure that our bodies wouldn't get too cold in the water. We also took a 2 hour cruise in the harbour of Sydney. The cruise took us past the Opera House around the light houses and even under the Harbour Bridge. After the cruise we walked over to the Opera House and were able to have a tour inside. We even had a special treat while we were touring! The personnel at the Opera House were setting up for tonight's performance of a special group of students from throughout the world but mostly the United States. They were a string orchestra, and while we were there they began practicing together so we were able to hear the w...
Read more

July 5 - Council, Bath, Thermal Valley, Marae

Image
We had a full day of varied activities. We started out by meeting with Council member Trevor Maxwell. He is responsible for cultural exchange and tourism. He shared that all of the tribes in New Zealand stem from seven original tribes. Tourism has become a major component of Rotorua's economy. I was very proud of our students. They asked good questions and had good discussions with the councilman. Then we went to the Blue Bath for a swim. The water was fed by the springs and was nice and warm. We pretty  much had the pool to ourselves. We also had lunch at the Blue Bath dining room. It was a variety tea sandwiches that were very tasty. On our way to the Waimangu Volcanic Valley we stopped at Waiotapu geothermal pool which had bubbling mud.  It was so funny to watch the mud spurting up all over the pool. We hiked through the Waimangu Valley and saw Frying Pan Lake,  Echo Crater and Inferno Crater Lake. It is such beautiful country. We learned a Maori song to sing dur...
Read more

July 15 - Cooya Beach

Image
Our last activity took us north to the Port Douglas area for some sand crabbing. We traveled the Captain Cook Highway up the Coral Sea coast. It's said to be one of the most scenic drives in Australia,  and I believe it. The drive took about 1-1/2 hours, and it was breath-taking! We started the morning by singing to Will who is celebrating his birthday today. He gets the benefit of an extra-long birthday, too! :) We did our crabbing along Cooya Beach. We walked through the mangrove of boxwood trees. It was wet and muddy in spots on the trail. We walked quite a distance so we could walk through the water looking for crabs on the way back. It was slightly overcast, but comfortable in temperature,  and the water was really warm. It was a pleasant way to spend the morning. As my grandfather would say "It's a good job" we ordered our lunch previously,  because only one if our entire group got a crab. It was a nice-sized one, and our guide cooked it up for us to try,  a...
Read more