globtr: 2013 September Long Trip New Zealand

Saturday, September 7, 2013

2013 September Long Trip New Zealand

Long Trip – Day 2 Matamata September 2013

I woke up at 5 am probably because of jetlag. Morning was very cold but free toilets and good breakfast helped me to start the day. It was more than 100km to Matamata – my first stop in New Zealand. In the town, tourist information called e-SITE was well prepared and very helpful. Ticket to Matamata – Hobbiton cost 75 NZ$ and the visit was longer than 3 hours. I took the first tour starting at 9:30. One can drive there too. Weather was perfect, blue sky and lovely sun. In total there were 14 people. The place is amazing and I was surprised by tricks done here to achieve particular effects in the movie including false trees, an eagle keeping away local birds for the time of shooting and different sizes of doors and hobbits home for close ups and distant shots. Most of hobbits homes was empty as interiors were shot in Wellington movie studio. The Green Dragon was recently decorated for tourists and started serving local brews. The ticket included one drink. The area was chosen to be movie set only because of the huge tree – ‘ the party tree’ near a lake. Coincidentally, the lake is artificial and quite recently human made. It used to serve as a duck shooting place. The funniest thing is that the first time the shot there, officially, the area was closed due to military trainings so no one knows where ‘The Lord of the Ring’ is shot.

When we finished I saw the next tour – around 30 people – I was happy that mine was so small.

The next stop was in Rotorua, a town with a lot of adventure activities, geysers and hot springs. As usually e-Site guys where very helpful. In the evening it was time to get near the Waiotapu where is the famous geyser Lady Knox. Of course, the place to sleep was on the resting area approx. 10km before the town.