If last week was a peek into every day life with friends, this week was transportive. There were Hobbit Holes to explore, lake cliffs to touch and some mystical redwoods looming overhead. The weather cleared up for us to explore some more of New Zealand’s North Island. This post will hit some highlights from what we explored in our second week of staying with friends in New Zealand.

A few minutes after posting part 1 of this trip report, we were out the door for an evening at Hobbiton. For those unaware, Hobbiton is where they filmed The Shire scenes in both the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies. After tearing the set down once the Lord of the Rings trilogy ended, fans found the filming location and the remnants of the set. Tours began in 2002 before they rebuilt the set for The Hobbit and then kept the area as is for tours ever since.

Director Peter Jackson and his team handpicked this area in Matamata. The 1,250 acre sheep farm is, and was, owned by the Alexander Family. The set takes up a small portion of the rolling green hills. I plan to do an individual post on the experience in the future. For this post, I’ll just stick to our time in Hobbiton.

As we set off on our Evening Banquet Tour at Hobbiton, there was a level of familiarity for Melissa and me. After going to theme parks and doing several studio tours in LA, the cadence and environment was comforting. That was a welcome background feeling mixed in with the excitement of knowing the content was going to be totally new to us. We got to the parking lot, checked-in, explored the gift shop and then took the 10 minute bus ride into The Shire.

We had a group of around 45 guests along with 2 guides, Ben and Ellie. They both shared facts throughout the night and were always happy to take photos of people. There was never a rush while on the tour, which fits in with New Zealand’s more relaxed culture. We never felt pushed ahead to the next Hobbit Hole or in a rush to get to dinner. Instead, we meandered the path up and down through the 44 Hobbit Holes, most of which are facades.

I love cute doors, said unironically, but what makes this place really come to life are the beautiful gardens and attention to detail. Nearly everything is grown in the gardens, from the flowers to the pumpkins and more. There’s a practicality to it all, as guests can touch most everything they see. The whole tour was very unique in that way.

Toward the end of the walking path was a Hobbit Hole that was a full home for guests to explore. This is a fairly recent addition to the tour and was another step into immersion. We played Scrabble, you could sit on the beds, go into the pantry, and pretty much anything else you could imagine while on a tour of a Hobbit Hole. Our friends had done the tour before but not this aspect of it and they both said this really enhanced the experience.

After exploring the house, it was time for the Green Dragon Inn where we had drinks and mulled around outside for a while. Then, a very large feast was served. The food was good, largely comfort food with lots of meat to try and a few nice vegetable dishes. Later in the night, they also served dessert and that was tasty as well. The feast was really well made for having such a big group to serve. The communal tables were a nice touch, as it was fun to interact with the other guests on the tour.

Once the long dinner and dessert wrapped up, we all grabbed lanterns and took another winding path back to the bus. Getting to see Hobbiton in the daylight as well as the dark was wonderful and the weather really cooperated. Our guide stopped us all before getting on the bus, had us close our eyes and got quite sentimental. The guides worked very hard at making this a personal experience and the whole thing was better for it, avoiding any tourist trap pitfalls.

We ended the night with a very long car ride home due to some road closures. The Evening Banquet Tour experience took about 4.5 hours and cost $230 NZD (roughly $140 USD). Even with a high price tag, this was absolutely worth it. We all had a wonderful time and it has been one of the best nights of the trip so far. We’d do it again in a heartbeat.

The weekend brought an overnight trip to Rotorua, a town northeast of Turangi, where our friends live. Rotorua sits along a large lake and has some fun shops and restaurants. We stopped in at a rock climbing wall that doubles as a movie theater to go see Hamnet. My goal of seeing a movie in each continent is moving along nicely. Unfortunately, we didn’t rock climb afterwards.

Our main activity while in Rotorua was a nighttime Redwoods Treewalk. These trees were brought over by colonizers and have been planted in batches throughout the country. They were very prominent here, as massive as I remember the Californian Redwoods looking.

The nighttime walk saw the trees illuminated by different light fixtures. We walked up a ramp and into the trees, certain trees had platforms that were connected by swinging bridges. Guests are approximately 20 meters (65 feet) above the ground and, well, I’m glad it was dark so that I didn’t realize how high up we were.

Fear of heights aside, the experience was really beautiful. There were many different lights to look at, almost to the point where the trees get a little forgotten. Some of the lights were better than others but all of them were interesting and never approached being tacky. At it’s best the nighttime Redwoods Treewalk was peaceful and contemplative.

Sadly, this was the busiest spot we’ve encountered in New Zealand (still not that busy). That was in contrast to the quiet and beautiful experience it’s meant to be. It did seem that the later you went, the more peaceful the walk would be. We ended up being in the trees for a couple of hours, deliberately taking in the views and snapping photos. The platforms wobble a little bit so taking photos wasn’t as easy as I would have liked but a few turned out.

While at the experience, we also went into a glow worm cave. This was a little more manufactured and, frankly, a little strange. But actually getting to see the glow worms light up the cave was intersting. Our friends have done a more thorough experience at the Waitomo Caves and definitely preferred that but this was an easy, and fairly cheap, way to see glow worms.

Our trip to Rotorua was pretty relaxed, outside of some of those noisy Treewalk tourists who nearly stepped on my camera. The last week has been full of adventure but also balanced; we’ve worked and played, saw new things and rested. I dreaded the halfway mark of this trip because then I couldn’t tell myself that we still have 2 plus weeks of being with our friends and exploring anymore. We’ve passed that mark now and it’s a little sad but we’re very excited for the next 10 days.

We head to Auckland shortly, go to a music festival and then are off to New Zealand’s South Island for a week. We’re eager to explore something new and have some time off work. Apologies in advance for the post updates I’ll run for the majority of the week. I’ll sprinkle in a few new posts here and there but want to soak up our ‘friends and new place time’ while we have it.

As for this last week, I’ll remember the experiences the most. There’s something special about getting to enjoy new and wondrous things with people you love. We were immersed in Redwoods and lived as joyful Hobbits. Life feels simple right now and, with everything going on in the world, I think that’s a blessing. I hope you enjoyed the photos and this recap. More than that though, I hope you’re reminded to go see beautiful things with people you love.

Stay tuned as we’ll continue writing about our trip over the next few weeks! If you have any questions or thoughts about the trip report then leave them in the comments below! Planning a Disney trip? Check out our Travel Guides to help get you there! Here’s a link to discount tickets at both Disneyland and Walt Disney World. If you enjoy what you’re reading here on Wandering in Disney please subscribe to the blog via email or WordPress and like our social media pages. You can find all of those things on the right side of this page. Thank you very much for reading, we appreciate it!