Little Lolly's Small Adventures: Tauranga, New Zealand. Excursion: Hobbiton Movie Set

Last night Paul organised a game of 'Werewolf' in our cabin but, too late, he discovered he had arranged it on a formal night which meant that quite a few staff would be busy and unable to attend the game. Fortunately, though, enough people attended to enable us to have a game. Amongst those who came were a few officers, Christina (from the shops), piano bar entertainer, Barry; Matt (from the gym), singer Karen and her husband, Nick (a musician), America's Test Kitchen Host and one of the nurses from the ship's infirmary. Paul ensured there was something in the liquid form as well as some nibbles. In fact we had more than enough drinks. Paul had ordered some nibbles but no drinks because we had quite a few bottles and tins in fridge and cabin's cupboard left over from previous games evenings. When we went down to the officers bar to get some water we discovered a large order of drinks ready to go somewhere. It turns out that the drinks were going to be delivered to our cabin even though Paul had not ordered anything. Anyway Paul pulled out some bottles of Perrier (water) out of the batch and advised the bar tender that the rest of the batch of drinks wasn't needed because he hadn't ordered any. Not a problem. Oh yes ... problem. The drinks were delivered to the cabin an hour later! Paul groaned and let the steward offload the boxes of drinks with ice. He will query things later with the Beverage Manager.

It was overcast and rainy when the Maasdam docked near Mt Maunganui in Tauranga - not a very pleasant day at all. In fact you could sea the weather front encircling us and the weather forecast was not looking good. The Maadam docked later that was scheduled because another cruise ship held us up. The other cruise ship is a lot larger than ours and needed turning space in order to come alongside. Also the tide timing didn't help so the Maasdam's arrival schedule had to be shifted to fit in with the tides and the other cruise ship's arrival. Despite the later arrival - it does mean that the Maasdam will leave a bit later.

Despite the rain guests headed out to explore or go on tours. I had been scheduled to go on the Polynesian Spa tour in Rotorua but had been swapped over to go on the Hobbiton film set tour. It was a lovely surprise because it was not on the tour list that potential tour escorts could sign up for. Apparently there was a cancellation for the Hobbiton tour and the shore excursions manager needed a tour escort to go so she put me on it. I didn't mind being changed over to a different tour - it was just nice to get out and about again.

The drive to Hobbiton was a good 75 minutes or so, passing through beautiful countryside and up over a steep mountain pass. (Later, on the way back, wet road conditions had caused one not-so-cautious driver to crash his car but fortunately it didn't end up over the edge of a cliff! )

We arrived at reception area for the Hobbiton tour where our Hobbiton guide climbed onto our bus. From Hobbiton reception area we headed across the road to a farm where the Hobbiton film set was created. The farm is still a working farm and the family that owns the farm help out with tours of the Hobbiton set.

The rain had stopped when we disembarked the bus but we could borrow one of the huge umbrellas that they had for visitors. I took one along just in case. Ellie, our Hobbiton guide, took us along the paths so that we could see the hobbits very cute houses including Bag End, where Bilbo Baggins lived. We also saw the Party Tree, the restored bridge and the old pub. I took quite a few pictures - in fact waaaaay to many! We couldn't go into the hobbiton houses, apart from one where we could step inside the doorway for a picture of ourselves looking out of the hobbit house. The inside of it was an empty shell. Some of the hobbit houses were small in height but those that were used for film scenes with actors - they were of normal height. Optical illusion was used a great deal. The story of the farm and the film set was interesting. After the guided tour we went to the Green Dragon for refreshments.

Kevin, our bus driver, eventually met up with us at Hobbiton's exit point and we piled into the bus for the drive out of the farm to the main road where Ellie, our guide, disembarked and bade us farewell. All in all it had been a nice tour and guests were 'buzzing' from all the excitement. On the way back Kevin stopped briefly beside a kiwi-growing farm so guests could see the kiwi fruit growing and took us via a slightly different route through Tauranga and Mt Maunganui so that we had an idea of what the town looked like.

Back on the ship I met up with Paul. All was well however the weather forecast was getting worse.

Tomorrow was supposed to be a scenic cruising day around the mildly active volcanic White Island on our way to Auckland. The captain has made a difficult decision to cancel scenic cruising and to head to Auckland instead, arriving a day earlier than scheduled. Some guests may not be happy but it is best to be safe than sorry. Some crew will be happy about an overnight stay in Auckland - they will be able to go ashore in between duties. So, Auckland here we come!

PHOTOGRAPHS

Nearly at Hobbiton! The pub and the souvenir shop are just in sight.

We collected our Hobbiton guide from here where there is a souvenir
shop and pub. Visitors can buy tickets for Hobbiton and board a bus to
take them through the farm to Hobbiton.

One of the busses used to take visitors to the farm where Hobbiton is sited.
We were in our own bus so didn't need to change busses. Just our tour
guide joined us.