If one place could sum up a whole country, it would be Tauranga. Sheep, Lord of the Rings, and beautiful scenery. The day started out in a very familiar looking Toyota Hiace (every car seems to have been sent directly from the auto auction in Yokohama). The one bonus of this van was that it was a manual. Sweet, manual on the wrong side of the car. Fortunately, it really was not that hard, so we were off to go see the Lord of the Ring's set in Hobbiton. The drive through the countryside was absolutely gorgeous. Green pastures (something they forgot to invent in Japan), lots of animals, and sweeping vistas. Even though it was an hour away, the drive went by fast because we were all so mesmerized by the beauty of the countryside.
The Lord of the Rings tour started out on a bus taking us into the property. The driver was pointing out where one scene took place and he asked for someone to complete what Gandolf said to Frodo at that point in the movie. No one answered for a minute, then Mike (unable to restrain himself any longer due to his sheer giddiness) blurted out the lines. The driver quickly identified Mike as a dork and then we arrived at the Hobbiton set. It was pretty cool because they had just finished filming for the new film that is coming out this year. There were still tons of props everywhere. We got to walk around and look in the little hobbit houses, stand by the party tree, look into Bilbo's house, see the Green Dragon Inn, and learn a host of crazy things about the movie and the sets (for example, did you know the big tree on the top of the shire was made in Taiwan and the leaves were all painted by hand?) It was totally awesome to see everything from the movies. The thing that amazed us the most was the fact that it really is a beautiful place, truly breathtaking. Unfortunately we had to sign a confidentiality agreement so we are not able to post any photos from the newly renovated Hobbit set until this December when the movie is released. However, I will share some photos of the Green Dragon Inn as well as the surrounding farmland because that was already in place since the Lord of the Rings. Check back later this year for more photos of the actual Hobbit holes.
The photos above are taken from the official Hobbiton Tour Website but I took a photo of them from a board in front of the Hobbiton Tour Store.
This photo probably shows a little more so let's keep it on the down low...
After the tour, we got to see a sheep shearing demonstration. The guy said he had sheered about 500,000 sheep during his life. It took him less than a minute to sheer the sheep. It was a really interesting demonstration but you kind of felt bad for the sheep. Afterwards, the kids got to feed the lambs. They really had a good time. Then it was time for all of us to pile back in the van. We tried to go to another town, but ran out of time by the time we got there to see much of anything. The drive itself was a lot of fun and a great way to see so the countryside. Then, it was back to the boat (via the little boats) and on to our next destination.
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