After we left our hotel we had to get an Uber to the airport to pick up a rental car. It felt funny going to the airport without a flight. We got our little car and began the journey South.

We are not big Lord of the Rings fans (I have never even read nor seen it) but our route took us within an hour of Hobbiton so we felt like we had to make the detour and stop. It would be sacrilegious to travel all this way and not visit Hobbiton.

By the time we arrived we were starving. We stopped at the cafe first and had some lunch. We were surrounded by people who fit into two categories (not mutually exclusive): Chinese tourists and dorks.

After lunch we went down to the ticket counter and learned that the only way to visit was to spent $70 each and join a 2.5 hour tour. Overspending and being trapped on a mandatory tour are two of my least favorite things, so we decided to skip it. 10 seconds after walking out of the door we both looked at each other and had the same realization: we’re here at Hobbiton and we’ll never be back, just do the damn tour. So we paid and hopped on a bus with the Chinese tourists and the dorks.

We drove past a group of people (textbook dork category) all dressed up in hobbity clothing. I saw the sign and realized they were there for a wedding. I think I may have reached some sort of middle-aged maturity because instead of snickering at them in my head I thought about how fun it is to be so, so into something. I was even a little jealous.

We were dropped off at the top of a hill and into the very charming and capable hands of our guide. She told us all about the set and the scenes that were filmed here, which meant nothing to us. Despite the lack of context we had a great time and enjoyed seeing all the cute little hobbit houses. My favorite part was seeing all the amazing gardens surrounding the sets. All the flowers and vegetables were real.

We took this photo outside of Gandalf’s (I think?) door. Not sure what’s going on with my hair.

Towards the end of the tour we got to go into one of the houses. I don’t think anything was filmed here but it was an amazing set nonetheless. There were so many details. Nick and I agreed that some day we should build a cabin based on this little hobbit house.

Millie made friends with another little girl, as she does. They got so tight within 20 minutes that we exchanged addresses and phone numbers with the mom so they can write to each other.

At one point on the tour, everyone’s phones had a synchronized cacophony of emergency alerts. It sounded terrible and brought us all back to reality. These were to warn us of the coming cyclone, which is due to hit the island tonight. No one seems very concerned about it but the radar does look quite gnarly.

We drove another hour to our Airbnb in Rotorua, stopping along the way at a Woolworths to stock up on food ahead of the storm. Nick and I skipped dinner because we both feel suspiciously nauseous and we’re worried we ate something that has disagreed with us. Tomorrow we are expecting heavy rain all day, so it’s likely that we’ll just stay in, hopefully feeling less icky.