Day 85/274
Monday, March 4, 2024
Auckland, New Zealand: Beautiful country at the bottom of the world.
Kia Ora!
Kia ora" is a Māori greeting in New Zealand. It can mean a lot of things.
Kiwis use it to say hello, good morning, good luck, and take care. Its a way to wish someone well.
This morning we arrived in rainy Auckland.
Auckland is the country’s biggest and most populous city on the North Island.
The New Zealand’s North Island is also the place to go to experience Maori culture.
We got only one day here and had an excursion to Hobbitton – the world famous and charming movie set for Lord of the Rings.
It was a long drive through the mostly mountainous and steep hills, volcanic peaks, lush, green fields covered with grazing sheep that look like white clouds with four legs. In New Zealand the ratio of sheep to people is 5 to 1.
The breathtaking scenery of the country site was following us all the way from Auckland to Matamata.
It’s the end of the summer here right now, and the weather is changing. It’s getting cooler, and we have been unfortunate to experience the worst weather of this year, do we have been told.
Even though we got soaking wet, we still enjoyed the nature, the scenery and the epic Hobbiton village. We were excited to finally be able to see one of the most iconic and beautiful movies sets ever created. The Hobbiton movie set covers 4.8 hectares and features 44 hobbit holes. The valley is designed down to very intricate details from fully furnished hobbit holes to vegetable gardens, lake, fruit trees, bridges etc. It was very fun, immersive experience.
Fun fact: New Zealand houses Waitomo Glow worm Caves, the world’s only glow worm cave.
