The day in Rotorua started out raining and after having to hide from a rainstorm, we were a little discouraged. Fortunately we already had completed our points on the agenda ‘Lake Rotorua and hot springs in the urban area’ and thus just waited for the rain to stop from inside the car…
Next to all the hot springs, Rotorua offers quite a deal of Maori culture.
It only was a few minutes, which we used to look at the route ahead and without rain we went towards our next destination. Because when you are in Rotorua, you just have to look at the geothermal phenomena up close. We decided in favour of ‘Hell’s Gate’ and were not dissappointed!
Just like any other significant attraction, first you pay for admission and enter the premises. In our case it was an hour’s worth of a walk through most impressive terrain… And what am I to say, we had the shining sun with us. 🙂
A small mud volcano…
On the original blog (though it was preselected) I didn’t post this picture. The why can only be answered by the Oli of the past. Here I have the chance to show you how a friendship was forged and what it looked like back then. I am so happy to have you in my life, Celine! 🙂
Just next door you find the Blue and the Green Lake. Who should have known that the colour you can only see from way above? So they looked great, but like two ordinary lakes. 🙂
We went back to the hostel, I changed the camera battery and and we double checked the weather report: All clear for another visit in Hobbiton!
While drivinv, we booked ourselves the last tour of the day and arrived an exact 3 minutes early. The sun began to set, we had a blue sky and some excitement and all that made for a brilliant experience.
I will just spare y’all with an abundance of movie facts and just hope that the pictures tell the story by themselves. 🙂
This dreamlike scenery is completely secluded from any views from the outside. Also, you have to go through the meadows of the Alexander Farm for a couple of minutes in the shuttle bus, before you can even see any sign of the movie set.
You are being led through the set by your tour guide, so you cannot freely move on your own. That gives you much information and is non-constricting.
This tree is not real. Some parts of the branches still are, but most of it is from silicone. 🙂
Here I am the size of a Hobbit…
…and here the size of a human. 🙂
The mandatory shots of Bag End…
…and of Sam’s home.
The view from inside the Green Dragon.
For, as mentioned, we had the last tour of that day, we had one advantage and one disadvantage: On the one hand we had no tourists following us and could take our pictures and glances freely, but on the other hand it was quite dark in the end, which is hard on you picture results…
What a day though! We saw: Rotorua, the hot springs at ‘Hell’s Gate’, some big lakes and at the last moment Hobbiton. And the weather just played along perfectly!
