Day Tour to Rangitoto Volcanic Island

When we were in Auckland, we took a Volcano tour to Rangitoto Island, which is a volcanic island but has been dormant for 600 years.

Rangitoto is Māori for 'Bloody Sky',with the name coming from the full phrase Ngā Rangi-i-totongia-a Tama-te-kapua ('The days of the bleeding of Tama-te-kapua'). The volcano erupted within the historical memory of the local Māori iwi (tribes) and there have been footprints discovered between layers of volcanic ash on the adjoining Motutapu Island (non-volcanic).

We took the Fullers 360 Rangitoto Island Volcanic Explorer Tour. We booked our tickets online for a specific time and all we had to do was find our way to the ferry. To get to the island, we had to take a short ferry ride. We opted for the guided tour on the 4WD road-train. Our guide was a friendly man who was very knowledgeable about the island and gave us very interesting commentary the whole trip.

Tickets can be bought online or on-the-spot and is NZ$65/adult.

 OTW to the port

 It was a beautiful day out! I love chilly sweater weathers...

 Fullers run many different types of tours. This was our ferry!

It was really sunny

 We asked for which Pier our ferry was and were directed to Pier 4

 Inside the ferry! It looks empty but there were actually quite a bunch of us. You can visit the island on your own if you like, but you have to make sure you catch the last ferry back which I think is at 4:30PM daily or you're in trouble because there is no accommodation on the island as nobody really stays there after dark. There are privately owned houses there but they were empty when we were there.

 Our island ride!!

 First row seating! You can of course hike your way to the top if you want to and are fit enough!

Volcanic rock errrrrrewhere!

The road-truck stops just below the Rangitoto Summit, so you have to take a very short hike up for the fresh air and killer view.

This is the Rangitoto volcano crater.  Scary imagining how boiling hot lava exploded from right here 500-600 years ago.. And it came in a series of eruptions and not just once!

Higher up, we reached the Rangitoto Summit and had a beautiful view of Auckland city!

Living the high thug life! Lol obviously this was in between shots but I think it'll do

What was interesting was at the Summit, there were military installations built during the World War II. They were built to support the Auckland harbour defences and to horse U.S. troops and store mines. The one at the Summit was an old observation post.

When we got back down, we found out that my BF's parents made friends with some Chinese Indonesians who were also on the trip but were unable to walk up the summit. Lol.

Before the tour ended, we were allowed to wander into the volcanic rocks!

After that, we took the ferry back to the city. It was definitely a great trip, can't say I've been to many volcanic islands!!!!

Xxx

The Magic that is Hobbiton

Back to blogging about my New Zealand trip! This is non-chronological but this was one of the main highlights of my trip, so I am enthusiastic to blog about it!

Naturally, one of the biggest (if not the main) excitements of visiting New Zealand was that it meant we could go to Hobbiton, the movie set where Peter Jackson filmed Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit.

Hobbiton is in a small town called Matamata. It is equivalent and comparable to Seria Town; quiet with two to three blocks of shops and restaurants.

We stayed in Tower Road Motel, which I previously mentioned turned out to be the best motel we stayed at in NZ

 The hotel was clean and had all the basic necessities we needed. Also, even though they have enough space for 3, motels in NZ charge a lil extra for a third person.

We reached Matamata, checked in (friendly receptionist) and went to stroll around the town before our Hobbiton trip later that afternoon at 2PM. We've purchased our tickets online and opted for the option of being picked up from the iSite which was 10mins away from the motel.

 I remember taking these photos to show my colleagues how many Asian eateries there were around there, LOL

 We then stopped by for pies for a quick lunch

 Pies are a big deal in NZ, and they come in all kinds of fillings. I chose the steak and cheese pie. Yum yum.

We then made our way to the iSite, which is built like one of the Hobbit houses!!!

Its called the Shire's Rest:

 iSites are visitor kiosks that can be found all over NZ, but only this one in Matamata is built in the Hobbiton theme.

You can purchase your tickets online here. Make sure to buy them early to avoid disappointment!

You can actually purchase evening tours which include dinner at the Banquet Hall, but we got the Day Tour because I wanted to make sure we could see everything clearly with the sunlight #kiasuAsian

There are also Chinese Tours if required.

 YES our ride is here!!!

 The ride there was quite empty except for the 5 of us and 2 Americans

 Lovely lovely landscape

 So the story goes, in 1998 Sir Peter Jackson scouted for the perfect location to film Lord of the Rings and landed on this gem here in Matamata, and he had to seek for filming rights from the Alexanders to film on their massive farm. Upon agreements (KA-CHING), they cleared a portion of the sheep and cow farm for filming. When Sir Peter Jackson wrapped up LOTR the trilogy, he also wrapped everything up and left nothing behind.

It was only many years later when he (even to his own surprise) had to film Hobbiton, did he and the Alexanders strike a deal to make Hobbiton a permanent place and a tourist site for people to experience the magic of JRR Tolkien!

As the bus was so empty, we were unsuccessfully hopeful that it would be just the few of us. But when we met with our tour guide (a local Kiwi who lived in Matamata), we were met with another few in our bunch, but there were many bunches having their tours at the same time but at different paces.

The place was such a beauty! It felt ultimately surreal to be at THE Hobbiton. THE place where Sir Peter Jackson, Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen and more were at. Standing on the same grounds and filming the amazing movies from the Franchise.

 We saw many of the Hobbit holes on the way up the hill. Every Hobbit Hole is built with such great attention to detail that you could tell the personalities of the Hobbits that lived inside.

 This is the famous Oak Tree on top of Bilbo's house at Bag End. It was built with artificial leaves imported from Taiwan and individually wired onto the tree. The tour guide mentioned that the dead giveaway that the tree wasn't real was that it had leaves.. in winter!!!

Spot the chess set!

A lumberjack hobbit? 8-)

Everything is real!

The tour guide kept making fun of us that we fit right into these Hobbit Holes, which we good natured-ly agreed. lol I probably would've succeeded in being a Hobbit.. if they hired Asians.

They had auditions to hire Hobbits and they mostly hired the locals that lived around and in Matamata. Key features were round eyes and yes, round cheeks!

None other than Bilbo's house at Bag End. Bilbo was notably the richest hobbit, evident from his many windows and the fact that his house was the highest up on the hill!

cheese??

This was Sam's house!!

Not in pictures but we also saw the big piece of land where they filmed Bilbo's 111th Birthday!
Here is a short clip to refresh your memory:


After the tour up and down the hill, we continued to the Green Dragon, which is a pub added in December 2012, that allowed visitors to have a drink before they ended their tour. The Green Dragon is a functional pub where you can order food and drinks in. Inclusive of the tour, drinks included Amber Ales, Apple Ciders, Traditional English Ales and Ginger Beer for the non-alcohol takers.

My BF had the cider while I had the English Ale, which was bitter and salty at the same time.

That ended the amazing tour at the amazing Hobbiton, and we were then dropped off at the merchandise store where I got a t shirt (for CHILDREN... SCORE!!) and some magnets for my friends. Nothing was cheap, hehehe, understandably of course.

It was truly the highlight of my trip! The place was magical and I absolutely enjoyed it. We also visited the WETA Workshop in Wellington toward the end of our trip.. Another amazing trip!!

Xx