We’re not in the Shire anymore

We were thinking more like Mordor as we flew in over Los Angeles. We passed right over Catalina Island; we could have just hopped out instead of driving back up on Monday. A bit of a shock to go from the beach and green paddocks to this magnitude of concrete in less than 24 hours! Catching the 12:30 Amtrak to San Diego tomorrow, but first we sleep!

Last days in Raglan

The time has flown by and we’re doing final chores, like vacuuming and washing Paula and Kevin’s car, cleaning up the house, packing, taking the last compost to the worms. Said goodbye to the nice lady at the Environmental Centre. Jim hauled home the last fish (tarahiki or is it tarakihi?) and chips feed. This afternoon we’ll spend our last sunny afternoon on the beach. Raglan has been a wonderful, serene place to stay; we recommend it. We can even recommend a good rental house and the Arbuckles are great landlords!

Farewells

We drove out to Glen Massey the other day for a last visit with Paul and Daphne on a rainy day (one of only 3 or 4 this month). Got to see Paula, Kevin and the girls, down from Whitianga for a netball tournament. Had a final visit with Hori the Pig. We brought him treats (okay, Karin brought treats). In downtown Raglan today, we ran into Tim, the boat captain and subject of Karin’s book interview here, so we farewelled him, too. Have done a few more local hikes. We went back to Bridal Veil Falls on a misty day and yesterday we tramped through the Wainui Reserve through cow paddocks down to the beach.

Tiki tour

We put some kilometers on Paula and Kevin’s little car this week. A visit with old friends Gary and Kaye Pollock took us to Taupo. They drove 2 hours over from Napier and met us at our hotel. We had a great catch-up with them over lunch (hadn’t seen them since a visit to their farm near Tamworth on our sabbatical in Australia, 2003). We got as far as Huka Falls with them when they got a call; their son was ill, so they had to jump in their car and head home. It was a lovely if brief visit.

After they left, we went out to Orakei Korako thermal area. A little boat took us across Lake Ohakuri and we spent the afternoon hiking through a preserve with boiling mud pools, geysers and steam huffing out of the ground. A bit sobering to think of what’s happening just under your feet. That evening, we fired up the spa and put our suits on. Jim always likes a good Jacuzzi.

We took a longer route home through Te Kuiti and Waitomo where we stopped to go through the glowworm caves. We’ve been here before, but Jim hadn’t. We think he was pretty interested in the “stars” inside the cave. It looks like the Milky Way, but just thousands of little worms working hard to catch a fly or two. No photos allowed inside; it scares the worms, so we had to settle for just our little boat as we left the cave and a few at the site, which is quite a bit more touristy than we remembered.

Raglan by night

A day with the Moxons

We drove out Waingaro Road to Glen Massey just this side of Ngaruawahia to see Paul and Daphne. They laid out lunch and after a tour of the house and gardens, we were off on a drive to see the countryside (that’s their house in the centre of the photo from up on the hill). BUT not before Karin could be reunited with the baby Captain Cook pig she saved from the dogs on the pig hunt in 1999. Hori went to live with a neighbour, who had domestic pigs, and has since had a pleasant reproductive life. He’s a bit bigger than when we saw him last. Paul let the neighbour know we were coming, so Hori waited in the stye for us. There was definitely a twinkle of recognition and Rick captured the reunion with many photos. Jim was not particularly impressed.

Off to Taupo tomorrow!

Raging sea

Sunday morning we went out to Wainamu Beach, just out of Raglan, and watched a very impressive tide coming in. When they talk about a raging sea, that’s a perfect way to describe it. The power of the tide on this morning was fascinating to watch; gave us a very, very wee feeling of what seeing a tsunami might be like. There’s a full moon now, so that may explain some of the power. We went out again in the afternoon and though the tide was out, you could still see the waves crashing out at sea. The beach was littered with shells and stranded jellyfish. We waded out in the little pools to watch crabs running around like pool cleaners, popping into the sand when they felt footsteps. Then suddenly it seemed like someone opened a floodgate and water would start flowing in and pulling out from nowhere. Very weird. You can see how a little kid could get swept out into the Tasman, though people didn’t seem very concerned!

By the way, our neighbour goat is a girl, and her name is Floppy. We know you’ve been wondering! J

The Shire (but we can't show you)

We thought it might be touristy, but it was great! We visited near Hinuera/Matamata this week and took the tour of the set for The Lord of the Rings trilogy. The farm is a long drive off the beaten path on Buckland Road in a stunningly beautiful valley. The movies do it justice. We had to sign confidentiality contracts agreeing to not show or post any photos or movies taken at the site or pass on any details we heard about the filming. We got to visit the hobbit village built recently for the prequel that’s in production now and Peter Jackson would be very grumpy if photos of that got out. But we can share some around the Shire’s Rest and Wool Shed.

When we arrived, an older guy and his dog Kate were mustering some sheep so we visited a bit with him. We figured he was a hired stockman on the farm. Karin talked to him for awhile inside and then he went out to chat with her while we waited for the bus to take us to the site down in the valley. Great old guy–that’s him in the hat; he wanted to hear all about her cow milking days at Ohinewai. They discussed the high prices of lamb in the store, what weeds he’s battling, and talked farming. She soon realized he was Ian Alexander, the farmer who owns the entire 1250 hectare sheep & cattle farm. When a location scout found this site, the Alexander family eventually gave permission to Peter Jackson to use their land for the movies way back in 1998. Ian and his sons still operate the farm, but also worked out a deal with the movie company to run visits to the Hobbiton set.. Sets built for the movie in other parts of the country were dismantled after filming. Anyway, the tour was fantastic. Ours was a small group and we walked around for 2 hours; Teresa was our fun tour guide and had loads of information. Wish we could tell you more, but we don’t want lawyers knocking on the blog door. Afterwards, we came back to Shire’s Rest to watch Craig shearing a sheep (Jim liked it) and got to feed some very hungry lambs. Jim even gave that a go.

A wonderful day. If you’re ever in this part of New Zealand, and even have a remote interest in the J.R.R. Tolkein stories, you really should do this.