Something is rotten in the city of Rotorua

Just a short drive up from Taupo is the city of Rotorua, situated in a higly active geothermal area, you can smell the sulfur in the air and everywhere steam is rising from manholes and parks. I had a tight schedule using Rotorua as my staging area for the many attractions in this part of the nothern island and so there was only time for a short walk in the park before departing on the shuttle to a small but famous little town

A big green bus pulled up and picked us up. 

Taking us to a landscape of barren looking rolling hills mostly inhabited by sheep, but after a few corners the grass started to go green revealing a little village complete with vegetable gardens, butterflies and smoke from the chimneys on the hill side. Welcome to Hobbiton!

After the three first movies the original set for Hobbiton was torn down as it was made from temporary materials and the farmer needed his land back, but for the three new movies It was decided to spend 2 years constructing a more permanent setting that would be there to thrill the fans even when the only 12 days of filming was finished.

 

Everything was very detailed and well kept by the 5 full time gardeners, all it needed was some actors really! The hobbit holes were made in different scales so as to allow for human characters to look big and hobbits and dwarves to look just the right size. You finished the guided tour at the green dragon tavern for a taste of hobbit ale, in my case a dark stout served from the bar  decorarated by a hand carved green dragon!

All in all it was a nice trip, a little bit rushed as your time slot between the bus infront of you and the one behind you was a bit narrow for my liking and your paying 100+ NZ$ for it. 

Coming back to Rotorua I only had 45 min before the next bus would pick me up for a Maori cultural night. This included the selection of a chief for our bus full of tourists. The criteria were laid out pretty simply by our Maori bus driver Mark: "Do anyone play rugby union? Has anyone ever dreamt of playing rugby union?". So we ended up with a british chap being our chieftain and representing us in the challenge laid out by the village champion. 

So after a lot of swinging spears and clubs around and making intimidating facial expressions that included a lot of tongue, we accepted a peace token and were invited into the village. Here we were introduced to Maori culture, games and exercises meant to practice coordination and balance, singing and the famous Maori Haka, that is a war chant performed by the warriors just prior to battle to intimidate the enemy. 

The Haka is still used today by the New Zealand, All Blacks National Rugby Team before each game. The night ends with a traditional Maori meal prepare in a Hangi, an earth owen fuelled by warm vulcanic rocks. 

Going back our bus driver again impressed us. On the way out he had translated the Maori expression for hello/how are you/farewell ect. Kia Ora into 62 different languages. On the way back he continued by singing songs in everything from japanese to arabic. We also did the town roundabouts like 17 times singing The wells on the bus goes round and round and She will be coming round the mountain when she comes