Hobbiton!

Photos

Today was a big day. Hobbiton was one of the reasons we had to return to New Zealand. So, I'll start with the bad. The first quote we got from Kensington Tours had today as a private car/driver taking just the 2 of us door to door from our Auckland hotel to our Rotorua hotel with the same touring itinerary of Hobbiton and Waitomo Glowworm Cave. Now all I got was a blanket price for the entire trip but I did get an option to give up today's private car and driver for a coach option for I believe in the neighborhood of $350 each. It may have been $350 total, but it was a big enough number that I thought I couldn't justify the car over the bus. I was assured the coach wasn't a huge one with 50 people and it was the same tour. I chose the bus option. It turned out that today's tour provider is Great Sights. We didn't have that piece of information until we picked up our voucher packet in Auckland. We wouldn't have known, but according to the valet staff at the Stamford Plaza they are notoriously tardy, not necessarily unreliable but always over 15 minutes late. So we had a nervous half hour early this morning sitting with our luggage wondering. We had to be at the front door at 7am, 7:05 or 7:10am depending on the set of instructions. We had our original itin from before leaving home, the one we received on Auckland hotel arrival and the fax that was delivered to our room from Great Sights the afternoon prior. Since it said it superseded all previous instructions we relied on it. We were waiting at 7:05am anyway. The shuttle came after 7:30am and only after we had the valet call when they were 10 minutes late per the fax. It turns out that it is another sub-contractor that shuttles all the hotel passengers to the Sky City Bus Terminal for 8am departure. The shuttle picked up about 5 more passengers at 3 stops after we got on. We were the  only 2 with luggage. It turns out we got moved to a different bus leaving the Glowworm Caves. We were nearly the last passengers to board the bus after checking in and stowing our luggage under the bus. We were on a bus that by my count would have held 55 people and it left  with maybe 4 empty seats. So, not quite as promised. I still wasn't too concerned as I knew that to tour Hobbiton, you had to join a guided bus tour. Unfortunately, Great Sights does this every day so they just get a guide to come on the giant bus and all 50 of us were herded around. It was hard to hear and not everyone spoke English so lots of people didn't follow instructions. It wasn't bad but it wasn't great either. I discussed with Clay that maybe I had lessened our experience with frugality and even in hindsight he agreed it was a tough call to make. We have no idea what our experience would have been had we showed up alone. It could have turned out even worse or exactly the same. They could have just added us to the big bus tour when we arrived by car. So that was the bad. The huge group, sitting in the last regular row of the bus, the uncertainty of the pickup and the bus transfer. I still find it hard to imagine the experience could have been twice as good at the extra fare. So that was the bad.

My personal bad is that I seem to have come down with a cold. I am pretty miserable and drowning in snot and sneezy. I was not good bus company!

Hobbiton was amazing! It exceeded expectations. I just wish you could book a hobbit hole and spend the night there!  I would not that it is not handicap-accessible. Nor is the Waitomo Glowworm Cave. It was a lot of rough walking and uneven stairs up and down. I don't recall there ever being any warnings. I asked Clay and he agreed that it was surprising. I know after we had made final payment that we were asked to fill out and sign a general good health document, but that would have been too late to have a conversation about mobility and accessibility. Lunch at Hobbiton was included which was not written in our information so a pleasant surprise. The tour ended at the Green Dragon Pub for a free beer followed by a hot buffet lunch served in a big tent out back. Lunch was good. Exceeded expectations again.

It was about 1.5 hours drive from Auckland to Matamata, about 2.5 hours at Hobbiton, another 1.5 hours drive to Waitomo and about an hour visiting the cave. We had visited a glowworm cave the last time we were here but it wasn't the same because this one was better and more impressive as it included total darkness as you drifted through the last part on a boat. Expectations exceeded again.

We got to the Novotel Rotorua after 6pm. We were exhausted. We got our room keys and headed up to drop our bags with the hope of a quick and easy dinner and an early bedtime. Not so fast. I don't know if I mentioned but one of our choices with Kensington Tours was hotel class. I went with 4 stars. The Stamford Plaza is the sole hotel of the trip which was not substituted between booking and departure. Our room at the Stamford Plaza had a close up view of the backs and roofs of adjoining buildings. The gym though had a wonderful harbor view. We got to our lakefront hotel room to find a view of the rear parking lot. Then Clay announced that the entire bathroom was a shower stall. It was a handicap accessible room. I picked up the phone and called the front desk and told them we did not require this room. The woman who answered said she'd call back. She did and told Clay she'd move us down the hall to a normal room. Vacate this room and wait by the elevators. Another woman exchanged keycards with us and promised us a lovely lake view. She was right! Clay ribbed me about it, but I felt we had a legitimate complaint and I'd kept quiet about the room in Auckland.

Literally next door is the outlet of a pedestrian restaurant district called Eat Street. I expect you could find something for everyone there. Clay wanted to try New Zealand beef after hours of riding through cattle country. We went to Mac's. The steaks were good, but nothing exceptional. We are spoiled by Harris Teeter beef. Clay stopped at the corner for ice cream and we came back to the room. Clay stayed up and worked on the computer and posted photos. I took 2 Benadryl and passed out. The last thing I remember telling Clay was that since he thought the bed was too hard at Stamford, this bed was like climbing into a marshmallow. When we woke up the next morning, he told me he had sunk so deep into the bed and the comforter was so thick that he had been pinned into the hole he had created and not been able to turn over all night. I slept like the dead. No complaints.

Photos