Kiwis and Fairy Bread

15 December 2023

Our day started off with a beautiful drive on a windy road through rolling hills and farm land. The road led us to Hobbiton. Yes, it is real.

Back in 1999 Peter Jackson found this working farm and turned it into The Shire for his iconic Lord of the Rings trilogy. And then restored the land back to how he had found it. When the time came to make The Hobbit Trilogy (which didn’t need to be a trilogy and was really not very good, but that’s not the issue here) Hobbiton was built again. But this time, Peter Jackson, the family that owns the land and Warner Bros decided to make it all permanent. So after filming, The Shire remained. And we were there!

The guided tour had plenty of anecdotes and lots of time to walk around and enjoy every little detail. It was stage craft and set decoration at its best. From the gardens of both real and faux produce and flowers to the little hobbit holes with stands with loaves of bread, jars of honey or wedges of cheese for trade (you could pick it all up!). We were able to visit Bag End and Sam’s House, see the May pole and tree where Bilbo celebrated his eleventy first birthday, and walk over the bridge where we first meet Gandalf and Frodo. There is a hobbit home to walk through where we sat by the fire, stirred a stew on the warm wood stove, looked into a hobbit child’s blanket fort and doll house, laid on quilted beds, looked into an herbary and a water well and sat down to a table set for dinner. It was all so enchanting!

The tour ended at The Green Dragon with a drink and a bit of a dress up and conversations with our fellow Lord of Rings fans. I am still smiling.

A 90 minute drive brought us to a fantasy of a different sort. The coastal resort town of Mount Maunganui. But first, we hit a lot of traffic. And realized it was Friday afternoon in the summer time and of course everyone is heading down to the shore! We came around a bend and all of a sudden we saw it: a volcano with a flattened top. Could that be where we were heading? We weren’t sure because then the road took us right through a major port where container ships abounded and trucks carried raw lumber; lots of it. The port gave way to a busy shopping and dining district and then we were at the beach! Which is anchored by the extinct volcano known as Mauao.

Legend says that it was once a nameless mountain who fell in love with the beautiful mountain Puwhenau. He convinced the magic people to drag him closer to her. But the sun rose before they quite made it and they disappeared, leaving the volcano in this spot, but at least he was finally given a name.

We are now camped at a holiday park right at the base of Mauao. A beach of sparkling sands is just feet away. At twilight we walked onto Mauao to watch the sunset. We sat underneath a huge red and green Pohutukawaka tree, where a bird welcomed us. This black bird has two round white feathers on his neck, giving him the common name of Parson Bird. But his proper name is Tui. Tuis are territorial, each claiming a tree for their own. It was kind of him to share his with us.

The pohutukawaka is also known as the New Zealand Christmas tree, due to its big beautiful red blossoms that appear at this time of year. We have been told that this is a very good year for them and they are putting on a spectacular show.

As did the stars! Our first sight of the clear Southern Sky! The constellation of the southern cross was right over the water in front of us. A star of immense brightness, (it looked unreal!) shown all night straight up. We have been told it is Mercury. I don’t believe I’ve ever seen him before.

We are feeling immensely blessed.