Days 4 & 5 – The road to Hobbiton…

Unfortunately, since we stayed an extra night in Ahipara, we had a lot of driving to make up on Friday.  According to the GPS, the drive would only take 6 hours to get to the hostel we booked south of Auckland.  The GPS was wrong.  First off, it sent us on a route that required us to take a $20 ferry ride that left every hour instead of taking us to a highway ten minutes down the road that originally took us to Ahipara in the first place.  It also assumed that I could drive hairpin turn after hairpin turn for a good portion of the trip at an average speed of 100 kph.  It also didn’t help that we hit two hours of traffic passing through Auckland.  Long story short, a supposed 6 hour drive turned into a nearly ten hour drive.  At least the weather was nice though, and we were treated to many incredible views.  Here are some pics taken on the drive…

On the west coast of the Northland.  Some dunes in the distance.

Auckland from the highway, just before the traffic jam.

Once at the Golden Owl, our hostel for the night, Sharon cooked a delicious stir-fry with some veggies we picked up at a roadside market and some lamb, and then we did laundry as we were desperately low on clean clothes.  Our hostel was nice.  The owners were a very friendly older couple, and the hostel itself was comfy and clean.  From what I could gather, it was a great place to stay and do some hiking.  Here’s the view from just across the street…

On Saturday we set off fairly early to head to our first destination of the day, Rotorua.  On the way there though, we drove by this…

We actually had to make a u-turn to go back and take a picture of this.  I must say I was pretty excited.  Yes, I am a dork.  Anyways, I guess this is very close to the Hobbiton set from LOTR.  We didn’t bother to go see it because I read it’s pretty expensive, so I guess that means I’m not THAT big of a dork.  Or maybe it just means that I'm cheap... 

On we went to Rotorua, which is famous for its thermal activity.  So as you can imagine, as we entered the area, the smell of sulfur got pretty intense.  It was so bad, it actually made me do my favorite Bluto impression from Labyrinth…”Smelllllllllllllls baaaaaaaaddddddd!”  (It is now my goal to mention Labyrinth in every post I make during this trip).

In Rotorua, we visited Whakarewarewa Thermal Village which is a native Maori village that sits in a very thermally active area.  We really enjoyed it because we got to see some cool thermal stuff, as well as get a glimpse into the Mauri way of life.

Here is a picture which gives you a good sense of what the village looks like, and what I mean by thermal activity.  The whole town sits on top of a few feet of the Earth’s crust, underneath which sits 100+ degree water.  Pretty crazy.

With this t-shirt on, who would ever guess I'm Canadian...

There was also a couple of geysers that erupt every hour or so right next to the village.  Here’s a pic of me and Sharon with the erupting geysers in the background.  Thanks to my sister-in-law for the awesome Captain America t-shirt.

 

Here is a thermal pool that sits in the middle of the village that is a balmy 95 or so degrees Celsius.  They use this pool to cook eggs, veggies, etc.  If you look closely, you can see a bag of corn on the cob being cooked in the pool.  Sharon was very enthusiastic about getting some of this corn to eat…

…which you can see for yourself in this pic.  It was actually quite good as a lot of the minerals in the water seep into the corn to make it extra tasty.

After the village, we went Zorbing!  Zorbing is basically getting into a giant rubber ball filled with some water and riding it down a hill.  It was quite a thrill.  Most of you probably already saw the pic that was posted on FB of us inside the ball after the run, but here it is again for your viewing pleasure.  And yes, thank you Soo, I am very very white.  If it makes you feel better, I am working on a serious farmer’s tan right now;)

Here is also a picture of the hill we went down.  You can see the Zorbs going up the conveyor in the back.

After Zorbing, we drove to National Park to rest up for our big day hike of the Tongariro Crossing the next day…stay tuned.