Mechanics Bay

After finding my sea legs, it was Sarah's turn to feel seasickness on the Yasawa Flyer. After 3 hours of head-in-hands and magnum munching (Almond flavour) we made it to our final hotel and had a lovely final meal of tortellini and ravioli. A gorgeous Labrador cross kept us company (along with an array of frogs) whose name was Nala and who I have no doubt enjoyed our left overs.
The flight from Nadi to Auckland was a quick 3 hours smoothly done, and just like that we had a beautiful Italian greeting us at the airport. My sister Holly and her boyfriend Ben have very kindly allowed us to stay round their house sit in Auckland for which we are very grateful. We were able to catch up with Holly for the first time in 6 months and FINALLY meet Ben 😀. It also enabled us weary travellers to wash our clothes, have a bath and watch terrible kiwi TV - the only good thing was the lack of any political correctness. As a city, Auckland seems pleasant with a particularly beautiful skyline from the city's only bridge. We haven't spent much time downtown as to be honest, we've been to a hell of a lot of observation decks and walked passed enough shops we can't afford to look at! We did however, go out for drinks and got treated to a Budweiser and mango flavoured cider with our hosts ☺. The next day Ben drove us down to the Hobbiton movie set from the 'Lord of the Rings' trilogy. Now those of you who know me can appreciate the excitement I had to hide in order to maintain my super cool demeanour.... Sarah was also pretty enthusiastic and $80 (each!) later we were on a bus to Hobbiton. It was pouring with rain but our spirits were not dampened - with the help of a huge umbrella. We were shown several of the famous hobbit holes, paying particular attention to Bilbo's and SamWise Gamgee's house. It was during this tour Sarah realised how nerdy her boyfriend is having answered every single question layed out by the guide (sorry again Sarah)...Boom! The guide also told us some interesting facts about the set, accidental occurrences in the movie and Peter Jackson's attention to detail. He actually had the trees above Bilbo's house artificially produced with over 200,000 leaves. The leaves were all painted...but not to the exact shade he wanted, so he had each single leaf painted again. Having someone do this job is a quick fire way to create Sauron.
We got time at the end to dry off in the Green Dragon pub (from Galadriel's vision) and treat ourselves to a half pint of locally brewed cider. We then began the journey back after a short trip to the ludicrously expensive gift shop. Before we hit Rotorua, we collected our rental camper van (Jucy Dave). It's a really cool machine with a double bed, DVD player, breakfast table, fridge and kitchen in the boot - awesome! And with left hand driving we cannot wait to put this baby to work.Read more