from bag end to hell's gate

in continuing the lord of the rings theme, our first destination this morning was the movie set for hobbiton. it's in a small town about 45 minutes outside of hamilton on a working sheep farm (they include a "sheep farm experience" with a shearing demonstration as part of the tour package. more on that later). it turns out that this is the only movie set that survived the mandatory dismantling after the movies were filmed. apparently, the set was partially taken down when a long period of rain set in (imagine my surprise), which halted the process. by the time the crew was ready to continue, the family that owns the farm saw how successful the movies would be and realized the opportunity they had to form a tour of the site. a deal was struck with new line cinema and the tour was up and running.

seventeen of the original 37 hobbit holes are still in place in hobbiton. all other buildings, bridges, etc. have been removed. the hobbit holes are all painted white because a) they are legally obligated to make them look not like the originals and b) it helps make them stand out in the afternoon shadows. the tour site has a number of poster boards up showing the construction process and stills from the movie so you see what it ended up looking like. overall, it's a far cry from the finished product, but it's still pretty cool. you can walk around the party tree and bag shot row and so forth. it's a little pricey, but worth it for a true fan.

our tour ended with a sheep shearing demonstration, which looks difficult (evidently, the sheep don't always feel compelled to remain still while being sheared). the guy giving the demonstration was very nice and stayed to talk to us for a while afterwards. i asked him about the upcoming national championships in te kuiti. he said that while they are a big deal, the competition for the golden shears at the big competition in wellington is more important for the locals. it is "sort of like wimbledon". i'll take his word. however, he says i should absolutely go (you hear that mike? it's on!) and that it will be very interesting.

we then progressed to rotorua and booked our evening's entertainment at a hangi dinner (sort of like a maori luau). our tickets included free entry into hell's gate thermal spa and geothermal park. kelly decided to take part in the spa while jason and i walked around the park. i have this to say about hell's gate: it's not my favorite place i've ever been, but it certainly is different. the park consists of a series of hot springs and mud pools heated geothermally up to 300C. there are more fumaroles than you can shake a stick at and pretty much the entire place smells like sulphur. however, it is one of the few places of its kind and very interesting to learn about. i'm more stoked than ever now to go to visit white island when stephanie comes. kelly says that the spa portion is wonderful and would highly recommend it.

coming up next: my experience as tribal chief at the hangi. stay tuned!