This week's travels took us to Matamata, home of the Hobbiton movie set and farm. We were transported to Middle Earth by our friend Carol. The rolling hills and beautiful farms entertained us on the way as we searched for any stray dwarves.
David, impressed with his own height, assumed the role of Gandalf as he wondered how he would ever fit in Hobbiton.
Nancy of course had no problem entering the hobbit homesteads and was adopted by the community of hobbits.
David cheered up after a nice cup of ginger brew at the Green Dragon Inn. As you can see the Inn even hosts outside parties in the back. Since our day was mostly sunny but crisp, Gandalf found a particularly comfortable spot inside.
Warmed and rested Gandalf was more convinced than ever that the hobbits could reclaim the Lonely Mountain from the Dragon Smaug.
I don't know ..... maybe he slayed the dragon....
Hmmmmmmmmmmm
The working farm that is home to Hobbiton so matches the descriptions by Tolkien. Here are a few more views of the site. The first picture is Bilbo Baggin's home.
The tree that follows is the one on top of Bilbo's cottage and is totally fabricated. It costs over 1 million dollars to construct --- the artificial leaves were imported from Taiwan.
Now not to be outdone by Bilbo, David and I would like to invite you into our cottage and working farm.
Hope you enjoyed Hobbiton --- We sure did!
A Big thanks to Carol for traveling through the shire with us.
We did explore again on Saturday after a morning at the market. David finds these great little hikes right around our area. So we headed for the Pakuranga Rotary Walk and walked along the Tamaki Estuary. If you followed it completely you could end up at Pigeon Mountain, another volcanic site. We started too late to complete the whole trail. Along the way is this great kid's area called Snakes and Ladders -- composed of climbing ladders and tunnel slides ---- great for hide and seek too.
Have a great week!
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