The next morning I didn't even bother brushing my teeth. I just couldn't bring myself to do more then take a shower and get dressed after the ruckus the night before. I dragged my luggage around the corner to the car rental place. I don't know why but my bag feels like it's getting heavier and heavier, even though the weight hasn't changed at all. I got my car and gingerly climbed in. It's a strange sensation getting in on the wrong side (right side) of the car but for some reason driving on the left side of the road didn't feel nearly as strange. Thankfully I had gotten the car early enough that there was no one driving around the city yet and soon enough I was on a highway heading south.
The highway continued but turned into a country road. They still called it a highway even though it was a winding one laned road. I carved my way through the fields and soon I looked up and was surrounded by rolling green hills and mountains. It was more of the same for the next hour and a half until I pulled up to Hobbiton.
Most people I know when they hear New Zealand think Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. Everyone I've met here, however, might not even know it exists. If they do then they haven't given it a second thought. It's so off their radar that I haven't even bothered mentioning it after the first couple of times. Hobbiton was packed though. There were so many cars that I had to park in auxillary parking next to a heard of sheep. There are sheeps and cows everywhere in the countryside of New Zealand.
I sat in my car for about an hour after I arrived looking through my phone and answering e-mails. Finally I decided to brave the throngs of families and tour groups to venture in and see what's up. My first stop was the gift shop where they had just about everything you could think of with Lord of the Rings characters on it. I purchased a few postcards because they sold the postage to go with them and had a mailbox - an easy way to fulfill my promise to mail postcards to my friends and family back home. The sun was rising high in the air and it was getting hotter by the moment. I found a brief repreive in the cafe where I ordered a New Zealand lamb burger and a Hobbit beer (they brew their own beer and sell it).
Before I knew it, it was time to hop on a bus and get whisked off to the Shire. I really wasn't sure what to expect. I didn't expect there to be so many people, which now that I think about it is really dumb of me. I also didn't expect it to be so immersive and detailed. Everything was set up with props and stories, each hobbit hole belonging to a specific hobbit and the sizes correlated to their status. Some of the doors were large for hobbit characters and some small to show Gandalf's size. There were bridges and ponds and streams and a mill and the Green Dragon where I got to try a free beer - I got the stout since the cashier at the cafe told me that it's the only one that's exclusive to the Green Dragon. Sadly it was back on the bus and time to leave the Shire.
I lingered a bit back in the welcome area before getting an ice cream and realizing my phone was dead. That meant sitting in the car for a while until it charged back up and I could see where I was going. I had the idea to go further south to see Mount Doom as part of my hobbit immersion tour. When I saw on Google Maps that it was another two and a half hours away I started to regret it. The scenery here is beautiful but after a couple hours of winding through it, it gets very boring very quickly. I took a quick break at a gas station to get a red bull to try and pep me up and then finally got to the park.
The park was breathtaking. You come out of these rolling hills and climbing up one and then back down and as soon as your down the valley and mountains reveal themselves in all their glory. It's easy to see why Peter Jackson was all about New Zealand for filming. The natural beauty of this place is unparalleled. I kept driving through the park until I found my hostel which looks like what I imagine a hiking backpacker's hostel to look like in the 70s. I don't think anything has been changed since then except for the linens and mattresses. It is very rustic but clean so I'm not really complaining.
Last night, while I was playing Spoons in the hostel, a couple of the guys I was playing with talked about the Tongariro Alpine Pass. They said it was a 20km hike across a mountain pass and that you have to pay a shuttle bus to get there because parking is maxed out at 4hrs and it is an 8hr hike. I didn't even realize that that was the reason people come here, I just came for the pretty scenary and to try something different in my travels. So when I checked in and they immediately sold me the shuttle bus to the alpine pass I didn't think much of it and said yes. Then I went to the room and started reading up about it and got immediate buyers remorse.
I ended up going back to the front desk and getting my money back for the shuttle. I'm foolish enough to try a lot of things but a 20km hike isn't one of them. The woman behind the reception desk was older and said that she agreed, and didn't see what the allure of it was. She suggested some shorter hikes nearby that are easier and also have amazing views and I thanked her profusely. Then it was off to dinner where I had monster beef ribs and a loaf of garlic bread at a local pub. The pub was 4km away from the hostel so I drove, and on the way back I thought wow 4km is really far, I wouldn't want to even walk this!
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