Kia Ora!
We set out to the New Zealand countryside today. A quick two hour drive by Antja who has acclimated to driving on the left and navigated by our Co-pilot app on the Xoom had us arriving at Hobbiton--where they filmed The Shire scenes from the Lord of the Rings trilogy and (until this November) The Hobbit. There we got a tour and some great shots of the film set including 41 hobbit holes (think bump in the hill with a circular door) during our hour and a half tour. During this tour, we were made to sign nondisclosure agreements to not release any photos until 2014, when the second Hobbit movie is released. Also, while there we got to see some sheep shearing in order to expose us to one of the primary industries of New Zealand, sheep rearing. There are over 31 million sheep in New Zealand that speckle the hillsides (down from over 60 million 20 years ago)--that is like 6 sheep per person in New Zealand. That is a lot of SHEEP! Following this we drove down to Rotorua, a beautiful lakeside town that has a strong aroma of sulfur (which, surprisingly, you get used to after awhile). Brad, Antja, and Nina decided to be hamsters in a ball bouncing down a sizeable hill, while Suzanne played videographer and cheered us on. Nina got really lucky here as it turned out to be a spontaneous ZORBing event for her as she didn't plan on ZORBing, but the ZORB people allowed her to hop in on one of Brad's three rides (returning back soaking wet!). IT WAS SO MUCH FUN! Then we went back to Rotorua and checked out Kuirau Park soaking our feet in the thermally heated water and acting a little bit like a kid again… Then we saw the Rotorua Museum which is absolutely gorgeous and a beautiful church by Lake Rotorua. After this, it was like 8:30 PM so we grabbed some Indian food for dinner and crashed out in anticipation of our busy next day!
