Today was the day. The Day. The day that Owyn and Rhys have been waiting for. Today we went to Hobbiton. I was not at all sure what to expect, and was a little worried that they would be disappointed.
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| Owyn after the tour. Better than Legoland. High praise indeed. |
An early Sunday start. We were mostly alone on the roads. We were booked for the 0930 tour. It was an easy hour drive to get there.
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| Owyn lost his mind when he saw this. |
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| The terrain around Hobbiton. You can see the rain cells rolling around out there. |
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| The Green Dragon from the road. |
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| Holy crap! A hobbit hole! We're in Hobbiton! |
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| Looking up towards Bagend. The smaller tree on the left is Bilbo's house. |
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| A series of holes moving up the hill. They are in different scales and use forced perspective to appear farther apart. |
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| Huh. Looks like I am actually on this trip with the rest of the family. |
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| Looking up at Bagend from the Green Dragon. |
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| The exterior of the Green Dragon. It is the only building in town that has a finished interior. |
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| The bar in the Green Dragon. The tour came with a drink. Cider for Tracy. Ginger beer for the boys. Amber for me. |
We bought some souvenirs on our way out. Owyn has been saving his money for the One Ring. Rhys used some of his for the Key to Erebor. I got a set of five gold coins from Smaug's horde. Mama bought some magnets. I'm suspicious of her forbearance.
Our next stop was the Glow Worm caves. These were another hour on from Hobbiton. Both boys slept the entire way there. The navigation has been butter smooth on this trip. We got sim cards at the airport and we're using Google Maps to navigate. It picks some odd routes but always gets us there and seems to make great time.
Also helpful is that the roads are great here. I'm used to the narrow, laid out by an ox 900 years ago, roads of the UK and Ireland. They're crap. Getting around here is a joy.
We arrived at the caves and our reservation had not gone through. After 20 minutes of discussion Tracy got us sorted for a tour, starting in one hour. The caves are very impressive, but the operation is not. Too many people jammed into each tour, and tours stepping on each other's heels. It feels like they're attempting to milk every penny they can out of the visitors.
The final part of the tour is in boats through the river part of the cave, which has the glow worms in it. They look like tiny blue LEDs on the ceiling of the cave. There is a system of ropes near the ceiling and the tour guide uses them to pull the boat through the caves and out. There is no photography or video allowed inside.
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| Stock photo. |
The rest of the day was spent getting back to Rotura. Google took us through some cute little towns that Tracy just adored.
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| Apparently this is a cute little town. |
One of the towns was making some sort of claims in regards to kiwi's. The birds not the fruits or the people. I'm not really sure what their claim to fame is but they did have a cool kiwi statue.
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| Colorful plumage. |
The two hour trip went pretty smoothly, though the boys were starting to get cabin fever near the end. We grabbed a few groceries, and McDonald's for the boys and got back to the cottage. We whipped up some fried rice with our leftovers while the boys ate dinner and were banished to their room.
I was not sure what to expect from Hobbiton but I have no regrets. At the end of the day it's a movie set, but it's still magical.
Sounds like a packed day and I'm glad it went relatively well. Sad that Bag End is not at least finished but glad you enjoyed it. Tell Owyn that world domination is not all it's cracked up to be.
ReplyDeleteThe Green Dragon is very nice, so they could have done a great job on Bag End. It would be a lot of work though, at this point. Owyn has decided that ruling the world would involve world peace. We did visit the Gallipoli exhibit today.
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