Hamilton, New Zealand

We stepped into a JRR Tolkien novel today with a visit to Hobbiton. The set for the Lord of the Rings movies has been maintained as a tourist attraction. The experience was a lot of fun. The guides were very knowledgeable and attention to detail on the set is just astounding. There are trees that were built and painted leaf by leaf just so they fit Peter Jackson’s vision. There is a full team of gardeners that keeps the set in perfect order. We were toured through Hobbiton with stories of movie production and ended with a beer at the Green Dragonn Inn.

Heading back towards Hamilton we stopped at an event called Field Days. We have seen advertisements for it and went to check it out. It ended up being a giant Farming Festival with all types farming equipment. We took in a few shows and sampled a lot of food in the food building.

After a full day we headed into Hamilton and met up with my friend Richard. I had met Richard on my Contiki tour of Europe back in 2006. It was great catching up and fun to see a familiar face on the trip. We headed to the Good George Brewery again, but this time the downtown location, and reminisced about our Europe experience and questioned him on what to see in New Zealand.

What a great Day! We finished off campervaning in Morrisville for the night on route to the Pinnacles Trek.Read more