Down Under - New Zealand

Before I arrived in Australia, Barbara had organised a trip for us both to New Zealand to stay with her uncle Les in Auckland. We took the three hour flight Sydney to Auckland on the 25th June and were met at the airport by Les.
He then took us back to his place at Brown's Bay, a small community just north of the city and about a 25min drive over the impressive Auckland Harbour Bridge.

After we had settled in we went to the 'local', The English Pub for a meal, and a drink !
I was surprised to see Fuller's London Porter on tap, but as usual in the southern hemisphere it was served too cold for my liking.

You need gloves for this !

The English Pub

Cheer's

The next morning it was up very early for the main reason for our visit and a trip to Hobbiton, the film set location for the Lord of the Rings and more recently the Hobbit. Les drove us to the city and we met up with the tour we were on at Sky City, the massive tower that looms over Auckland.
It was around a 2-3 hour drive from Auckland to Matamata, the home of 'Hobbiton' so I settled back and watched the New Zealand countryside whiz past.
When we arrived we picked up our guide at the gate and headed down through the working sheep farm where the film set is located.

Immediately you are transported to Middle Earth and half expect Bilbo, Frodo or Sam to wander around the corner. The site was used originally for the Lord of the Rings movies but was refurbished and added to for the Hobbit. There are now 40 plus Hobbit holes and also Sandyman's Mill and the Green Dragon Inn.

"I'm going on an adventure ! "

Bag End

The Party Tree

The Mill & The Green Dragon

Sandyman's Mill

The site was chosen for the rolling countryside and the party tree and is now run by the farm as supplement to their farming activities. You can also hire the Green Dragon for private functions.
Our guide was good fun and would throw random movie/book questions at us to see how much we knew or how committed as fans we were. I'm sad to say he had a job to catch me out as I've read the book over 40 times and know it backwards pretty much ! I wasn't too impressed when he called me Gandalf though !
The Green Dragon Inn is spectacular and full size, you can even get a drink, in a ceramic mug of course !

There were a few opportunities to birdwatch as well and I saw a few species as we made our way around the site.

Silvereye (Tasman Form)

Grey Fantail

I was struck by how many familiar species I could see with Chaffinch,Goldfinch,Greenfinch,Blackbird,Song Thrush,House Sparrow and Starling all very common. They were introduced by Victorian settlers in the 1860's and now thrive in the similar climate.

Before we left for the journey back to Auckland I spotted this Sacred Kingfisher on the telegraph wires.

Sacred Kingfisher

We had arranged to meet Les in the evening to have a meal. So around 6pm we met him and his friend Jenny in the foyer of Skycity and then went up to the revolving restaurant in the super quick lift with the glass floor.

Skycity, Nutters bungee jump of the ring at the top !

Auckland at night

After a lovely meal in my second high rise restaurant in seven days it was back to Les' house and a well deserved rest before our next adventure.

The next morning it was overcast and drizzly as we headed back into Auckland and the quayside to catch the ferry to Waiheke Island. This was voted one of the top ten destinations in the world by the New York Times but today you would have been hard pressed to give it any votes at all as it was cold and damp.

The journey over by ferry was profitable though as I braved the cold wind to see White-Fronted Tern at the first pick-up place and then Fluttering Shearwater's all around the ferry on the rest of the journey.

White-Fronted Tern

Fluttering Shearwater

We caught the bus from the ferry terminal over to the other side of the Island for lunch and the took a brief walk along the beach before the unpleasant weather forced to cut short our day and head for home, but not before I'd added a couple of New Zealand specialities to my list.

Variable Oystercatcher

Tui

The next morning Barbara and I caught the plane back to Sydney after an eventful few days in New Zealand.