Bon Voyage Auckland!

 After our fun visit to Hobbiton, we had a quiet last evening in Auckland.  We found our way around the marinas and saw some very pricey boats!  And, big ones at that!  Found a place for dinner… and looked around… we were the oldest ones in there!!!! Well, except for one guy.  Gosh, we don’t feel old!  Anyway, it was a great ending to a great taste of Auckland and the surrounding area.  And, Sunday, we were boarding a ship to take us on a new adventure!

The Sirena, Oceania Lines, is our home for the next bit of time.  Check in was a breeze and even better, was the fact we won’t be packing and unpacking for a while!!!! Woohoo… the simple things in life!  Our room is very nice and we have a balcony where we can enjoy the fresh salt air.

Seven o’clock, and we bid Auckland and it’s skyline goodbye!   We’re looking forward to some more memories being made!

An evening walk on our last night!

 Some pretty pricey BIG boats!

 Our wine at 16 Tun...and a great burger we split... and where we were older than dirt!!!!  

 Oceania's  Sirena!

 Jerry and I are gonna try out the 9 hole golf course!

 Champagne and a snack greeted us in our room

 Sun setting as we prepare to depart!

 Goodbye Auckland!

Hobbiton, New Zealand…. Lord of the Rings!

Oh gosh… what fun to visit the town where the hobbits lived!  Instead of building false buildings, they made permanent buildings built into the side of the hills (okay, they didn’t have real interiors, but none the less, the outsides were built to last).  Peter Jackson, director of the movies, and his wife found this land which a farmer owned and was working with sheep and cattle.  They came to an agreement, and now this part of the ranch is available for tourist like us to check out.  But, the thing is, this countryside is so gorgeous even without any help from movie magic.  There were 44 hobbit holes there… some built at 90%, some at 60% of actual size to help with the appearance of the actors and to create movie magic.  When they filmed parts with Gandolf and Frodo, they would separate them so Frodo appeared smaller… by camera angles. Pretty cool!

We traveled with some of our new sojourner friends:  Jill, Jeanne, Randy, and Susan… and had a giggle fest in the minivan for the two-hour ride there… yes, I said two hours!  But, so worth it.  When the actual tour was done, we had some ale in the “Green Dragon” pub and took a bridge pic on the Double Arch Bridge.  Also, we got a pic we hope to send into the TNT for publication with the newspaper in our hot little hands.  We shall see.

Sorry there are way too many pics… but, it was way too much fun thinking about the characters and where they were in the village.  Oh, the one huge oak, above Bilbo Baggins house is totally fake.  Painstakingly created and kept up to date with natural colors.  Pretty cool!   

Just a typical hillside in New Zealand near MateMate... jaw dropping beautiful! 

 This was the only fake tree in the whole area.  But, it certainly didn't look fake!

 right above Bilbo's house!

 Even hobbits get mail!!!

 Saw a beautiful butterfly grabbing some pollen!

 The maypole where they had Bilbo's birthday celebration!  

 Jill photobombing our bridge pic!!!!

 The Green Dragon Pub... so cool... plus we got some free ale!

 Well, maybe not free, I'm sure the ticket prices covered the ale!!!!

 We thought at first this was a stuffed cat... he was just snoozing in front of the fireplace, ignoring everyone.  Jerry touched him... and yup, he as real!