Lake Taupo / Huka Falls

I’m very excited to introduce a guest writer today! Cherryl is adding her perspective, and writing some of the text. Yay! I’m putting her comments in italics.

Lake Taupo is New Zealand’s largest lake. It is a volcanic crater filled with water, and is blocked by Aratiatia Dam. There used to be incredible rapids in the valley below the lake. But the dam stopped that. So to keep the Waikato river from filling in, and to keep people who loved the rapids happy, the dam is opened 3 or 4 times a day. We were there at 11:45 for the noon opening. The road goes over the beginning of the rapids, so people were walking to the other side to see which view would be better. The gorge side won. Bruce set up his cool phone holder tripod very carefully since if it went over it would be gone forever. I looked at several spots on the rocks below to see how high I guessed it would go. The very loud alarm went off twice warning anyone in the canyon to get out of there! At 12 the water started flowing. It took a minute to see a significant rise, then it grew and grew. My spots were all covered except 3 white areas near the top of the canyon. AMAZING amount of water. Then the dam closed and it all slowed and stopped and we got to go eat our picnic lunch! 

Here is a little time lapse video… The dam was opened for 15 minutes, but the river below filled up very quickly! Watch the beach, and where the water exits the little bay. The video was shot during two releases; the second half shows the river downstream. Don’t worry, it’s just a minute and a half long!

Here’s the river below the dam while in full flood:

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After lunch we boarded a boat right there by the dam and rode up to Huka Falls. It was a fun, beautiful trip. The good boat captain told great stories. We went by the power station that uses the river for generating electricity. The falls are beautiful and powerful. Our captain drove us up into the base of the falls several times so everyone could get amazed and a little wet! We saw some birds, but nothing identifiable as new to us. 

Below are pictures of the trip up the lake to the falls.

Here is a video of the falls from our boat, and watching a jet boat go for some thrills too.

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Craters of the Moon

Thermal activity is found many places in New Zealand. The Craters of the Moon Geothermal Walk was an interesting one. I expected it to look like, well, Craters of the Moon. There were lots of mud pots and fumaroles, but also far more green plants than I envision on the moon. The volcanos seemed to erupt mud here, instead of molten lava, and then bush took over everything quickly! Perhaps when this place was named, the bush hadn’t yet moved in, and it looked more lunar. It is now quite interesting, with steam erupting all over the place.

These aren’t low flying clouds… it’s steam erupting from fissures in the rocks or holes like geysers.

Here’s a tour of the Craters of the Moon in less than 2 minutes:

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After we left the Craters Park, we headed back towards our rooms… and found this geothermally heated set of pools. The water was a very beautiful shade of blue – made you feel you were swimming in Glacier water, but nice and warm. It really felt good after a day of trekking around! Gorgeous area!

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In the town of Taupo, we ran across the World’s Coolest McDonald’s. With a sign to prove it!

It is believable, because I’ve never seen another McDonald’s with a DC3 attached, let alone in such great shape. There is a staircase from the kids’ area up into the plane, but it was closed. Saved me from buying a Happy Meal just to go inside the plane!

As evening fell, Lake Taupo still looked great.

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Waitomo

The next day we had tickets to visit the Waitomo Glowworm Caves. We got there plenty early, and had a chance to walk a nice track they have nearby.

So many of the tracks (trails to Northern Hemisphere types) around here have beautiful steps leading one through the most awesome jungle/forests. The palm trees get 30 or more feet tall!

The Waitomo Glowworm Caves are fascinating… but they don’t allow photography. Our tour led us through a very nice cave, much as any cave tour would. But the fun part was when we had worked quite a ways down, we came to an underground river, or lake. Here we boarded a boat, and our guide stood on the bow and pulled us deep into darkness with an overhead cable. It was totally dark, except for thousands of little Glowworms on the cave ceiling. It looked like a starry night, and was mesmerizing. We floated through that dark mystical area for a while, then got near the exit. The guide said we could take pictures right there. Ever try time exposures from a boat? I got something like ghostly seagulls. Still fun.

There was another track near there, so we had to hike it too. It took us to the top of a ridge, and we could see town far away. It looked like a little storybook village from that distance.

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Rotorua

As we were driving to Rotorua the next day, we drove over this dam. On a side note, quite often on the roads here, a bridge or dam is marked as one way only. The ends are marked as to who has to “give way,” but it’s amazing to find this on a main highway. Well, this dam was one of those, and we decided to get out at the far side and see if we could get a picture of it. In addition, we found another track headed along the canyon, with the river far below. We needed our walk for the day, so decided to check it out. A little more than a mile later, we saw a huge suspension bridge. Well, of course we had to look at it too!

The bridge looked a mile long, and about 3 miles above the river. It was quite solid, for a suspension bridge, but still a bit spooky to walk across.

It turns out the bridge was built to let workers cross the river easily when they were building the hydro power plant. An absolutely beautiful walk, a fun spooky bridge, and all unmarked from the main road. How much other cool stuff are we driving right by?

Our hotel room looked out over a truck unloading area. I guess that sounds bad, but it wasn’t too noisy, and we saw some interesting truck maneuvers. This big Cat crane had a pincher claw, and it would unload logs from super-long logging trucks into smaller ones. When a logger had gotten rid of his load, the crane would pick up the trailer, and place it on the back of the truck, so he could return to wherever he came from without pulling a big long empty trailer.

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Hobbiton

I admit I never got into the Hobbit / Lord of the Rings movies. I loved the books many years ago, and it seemed the movies departed so much from the books I wasn’t interested. But I was looking forward to Hobbiton, the set they used in those movies. And I was much more impressed than I had expected!

The story of how all this came about is fun. Some location scouts were flying around in a helicopter, and saw this area. The hills, trees, and even a little lake convinced them it was perfect. The area was owned by a sheep farmer named Alexander. When they approached by car a few days later, they caught him watching a rugby match on TV. His wife answered the door, and they asked for permission to explore the property. Mrs. Alexander told her husband about the request, and he said something like “Whatever, just don’t let them interrupt my rugby game!” Eventually a deal was struck, and the 1,250 acre sheep farm became the set for The Shire, in the Lord of the Rings movies.

When the filming was done, the sets were pretty much dismantled. Some years later, Alexander was approached again… The Hobbit series was to be filmed, and could they use the same area again? Alexander was very smart, and said they could film here again, but this time they would have to build structures to last, and he would own them.

So Hobbiton was created. The original set for the Lord of the Rings Trilogy filmed here, starting in December 1999, for three months. The rebuilding of the set to prepare for the Hobbit Trilogy took two years… and filming started in 2011 and took only 12 days!

Alexander and family still run the sheep part of the farm, but I’m guessing that the Hobbiton Set and the tons of people (and income) that arrive have changed life on the farm a bit!

The entire place just feels magical! The detail is incredible. The film “trickery” is interesting too. Hobbits are supposed to be about 3.5 feet tall, so their homes don’t have a lot of headroom. Some are made to a large scale, and some smaller, depending on what the movie makers wanted to emphasize.

All the trees on the set are real, with one exception. The big tree in the first picture below, is of some significance in the movies, and was built Disney-style of metal and plastic. Artificial leaves were imported from Taiwan and hand-wired onto the tree.

There are something like 120 little Hobbit homes on the site. I will attempt to show you all of them! Ha! Just kidding. Just 80 or 90 will get you the idea. I loved this place!

They told us we could touch whatever we wanted, and could even pick up props if they weren’t glued down. Here is a little table full of honey products waiting to be bought.

Little clotheslines full of little clothes was a nice touch.

It rained all day prior to our tour, and the forecast was for rain all this day as well. We were very fortunate that most of our tour was rain free.

By this time in our tour, it was drizzling a fair bit. Many had taken to using the umbrellas provided.

Just last December, they opened up two Hobbit homes’ interiors. These were not used in any filming, but were fitted out by the same designers who did the sets where the actual filming was done. The detail, the workmanship, the whole atmosphere is stunning!

Just inside the door is a pot for walking sticks. The tunnel into the main house is just Cherryl-sized!

Rooms are furnished just as though the Hobbit householder has just stepped out for a minute.

Here is a little model of a Hobbit home, with the front opening so you can see inside. A Hobbit Dollhouse?

Hobbit fireplace, Loo, and Bath!

They said we could sit in the chairs or lie on the bed, and when else do you get a chance like that? So I gave it a try. A bit small of a bed for me.

The kitchen was a very comfy place, and had “lots of scope for imagination!”

This must be a pretty well-to-do Hobbit, because he had several rooms, all well stocked.

A 3-D guide to the Shire’s mushrooms.

After leaving the Hobbit’s homes, we walked a bit further to the mill and the Green Dragon Inn. [Dreaded Green Dragon?]

The Green Dragon Inn is even cooler inside than out. They gave us each a drink from the bar… three different ales with descending percentages of alcohol, or ginger beer for those of us who preferred no alcohol. I’m not usually too fond of ginger, but this was great! We bought a fun scone and a cashew/mushroom pie to go with our drinks.

Believe it or not, they have a “little shop” at the end of the tour. I posed with Gandalf, and he told me telepathically that I needed to take a bottle of that ginger beer home with me. I try to be obedient, so we did leave with a bottle. We will use it to celebrate on our last night before boarding the ship for home.

Just in case you need one, here is a map of Hobbiton. A most wonderful tour! They also offer a tour with a full Hobbit feast, and a chance to see the Shire at night. It seemed far too expensive, especially since a vegetarian would not want to eat a lot of it, but I left wishing we could have done it. Reservations should be months in advance, however, so we will have to save the Hobbit feast for next visit.