On Saturday 30 July, a group consisting of 5 from Saudi Arabia, 4 from South Korea, 1 from Colombia and myself went to Hobbiton, Kiwi House and Native Bird Park at Otorohanga, and Waitomo.
Waitomo Caves and Kiwi House – $180 per person, full day tour.
For info and bookings call: (64) 27 223 6655 email: [email protected] or book online:
Destination: Hobbiton, Kiwi House and Waitomo Caves
I picked up the members of the group at their houses between 8.20 and 9.15. The day was initially warm and fine, with a clear blue sky but as we approached Hobbiton clouds appeared, there was some drizzle and the temperature fell slightly to about 13 degrees, which is still not too bad for mid-winter.
We checked in to Hobbiton Ticket Office at 11.45 and our tour started at midday. A short bus trip though farmland took us to the entry of the Hobbiton movie set. Our guide led us through the village which is nestled in the hills of the farmland, explaining the features of the movie set.
Our group often lagged behind the main group while we were taking photos of the 39 Hobbit holes (houses).
The Hobbit holes are all distinctive – some had smoke coming from the chimney, others had small gardens around them, one had fish fillets hanging out to dry, while another had a pedal-driven tool for carving wood.
The tour of Hobbiton finished at The Green Dragon Inn where we were given a complimentary drink. There was a choice of 2 beers, an apple cider or a non-alcoholic drink which was ginger beer.
We were quite lucky as although we had some light rain at times during our tour, it started to rain much heavier as we were finishing the tour. The bus returned us to the starting point for the tour – the Hobbiton Tours Ticket Office and Carpark.
From Hobbiton, it is a one-hour drive to Otorohanga and the Kiwi House and Native Bird Park. We got there just before 3.30, in time to see the keepers feeding the kiwis and then we had a quick walk through the large aviary but we couldn’t explore the rest of the bird park because we had to head on to Waitomo.
Waitomo is only 15 minutes from Otorohanga and by this time it was raining heavily but it didn’t matter too much because we were going into a cave. We checked in at the ticket office and at 5pm our tour of Glowworm Cave commenced. Our guide told us about the caves, showing us formations and leading us down deeper and deeper into the cave until we reached the underground river. We got into the boat and were taken into the large chamber of the cave which is covered with glowworms. I have been there many times but it is still a magical sight.
There had been a lot of recent rain so the river level was much higher than usual and there wasn’t enough clearance to exit by the river which usually happens. Therefore, we headed back the same way we had come in. Our guide told us that the previous week there was so much flooding that the tours couldn’t even get to the boat so even though we didn’t get the full tour, we were luckier than if we had come a week earlier.
We finished our tour just after 6pm and drove a couple of minutes to Huhu Café, which is one of my favourite restaurants. The atmosphere was inviting, with a roaring fire which warmed us all up. There is a good range of dishes on the menu, all extremely tasty and there were a few halal dishes for the Saudis to choose from. As usual everyone was more than satisfied with their dinner. We said ‘bye to the staff of Huhu Café and returned to Auckland, the drive taking about 2 hours 30 minutes and I then dropped everybody off at their homes.
