Trip Shot Through with Excitement

Jan, 2008
New Zealand - Auckland
Trip Shot Through with Excitement –
8th Jan- 11th Jan 08

New Zealand is renowned for its wonderful scenery which has attracted the movie industry to firm blockbuster movies such as the Lord of the Rings’ trilogy and the The Last Samurai. Thus, the remains of the sets of both these movies are now popular tourist attractions.

It was an exciting trip. This time Victor, Phyllis and I, we rented a car in Auckland. We woke up very early in the morning. We drove all the way from Auckland to Hamilton until we reached Matamata! They are really adventurous enough I could say, as I didn’t contribute anything throughout, I admitted. Hehe… Victor was driving while Phyllis was guiding him with the complicated map on her hand. You guys were really ON! I damn idiot in studying map indeed!

LANCER that we rented

After about one and a half hours driving, we lay by in a park, more like a garden called The Kingitanga Heritage Trail. It was a quiet and comfortable place with the cool summer weather. The air was warm and fragrant with various types of flowers planted. At the same time, we could see all the cute ducklings were waddling about the riverside. The feelings resting there were so good and so relax. We managed to take some pictures before we rush through our journey to Matamata as we needed more time on figuring out the directions of the roads in this rural area.

cute ducklings were waddling about the riverside

Our experience began at The Shire’s Rest where we could take in the spectacular views across the farm. The host then brought us to The Woolshed and provided us with a sheep shearing demonstration. We got the chance not only to bottle feed the pet lambs but pet and feed the hand reared sheep! It was so fun to see all the sheep gathering around the sheep-fold and falling over one another, waiting for us to feed them.

Our tour then started with a drive through a picturesque working sheep farm with spectacular views across to the Kaimai Ranges. This was the very first time I saw so many sheep in one shot! The Hobbiton movie set has been returned to its natural state; however hobbit holes and some structure from the firm set are still present. The tour guide escorted us through the ten acre site recounting fascinating details on how the Hobitton set was created. I was attracted by the green view around which was suitable as my retired destination I was thinking… I would then be accompanied by the sheep and cows… Hmm… interesting!

The whole experience for being there was fantastic and enjoyable! New Zealand is a great place to spend our holidays, if you have the chance to do so, no harm in trying to take the combo package including The Hobbiton Movie Set & Farm Tour and the Sheep Farm Experience as what we did. The people who stay or work on the outskirts of NZ are feeling happy and comfortable with their life and job I think. I could feel their life is quite relaxed, easy and simple. They enjoy shearing wool from sheep, milking the cows… They live at their ease…