Strawberry fields forever…

After our tour of Hobbiton, we left the town of Matamata and our next stop was at Cambridge…

– no, not the one in the UK but there is one by the same name in New Zealand as well. Known as “The Town of Trees & Champions”, many medalists at international sports competitions came from there and the town is now best known for its thoroughbred studs and stables, which have produced many champion horses in the sports of racing and show jumping.

There was a Christmas fair at the town hall…

…so we went in to browse around. They had the Nativity scene on the stage…

…and Christmas trees all around…

…and there was a Christmas bazaar too…

I saw many nice things on sale but I did not buy any for fear that our suitcases would be overweight and we would have to pay the excess baggage charges on our flight back. For one thing, the people there were very friendly and polite and even though we did not buy a thing, they were still very nice and generous with their thank you’s and Christmas wishes…and of course, they were all tickled by my t-shirt! It literally stole all the attention everywhere I went that day. LOL!!!

After leaving Cambridge, we stopped by this strawberry farm…

They had fresh strawberries for sale…

– huge and freshly plucked ones, of course…

…and the smaller lower-grade ones, they sold cheaply for making jam…

…or they export them to sell at our supermarkets here, I guess…seeing that the ones we have here are all not very big…or not that big, at least.

We did not buy any though – our main intention of making that pit stop there was to have their super yummy ice cream…

…and you can see from the crowd at this place in the middle of nowhere…

…that the ice cream was really very good.

However, my friend insisted that there was this other place…

…located near Auckland airport where the ice cream would be a whole lot nicer…

Fast-forward to our last day in Auckland, we went there just to check it out. I heard the strawberries there were cheap…

…but I thought those at that other place looked better. They even sold these strawberry souvenirs there…

…but unfortunately, they did not catch my fancy so I did not buy any.

As for the ice cream…

…it certainly had a higher content of strawberry, so much so that it was a little sour and personally, I preferred the one at the other place. All in all, I would think that the award-winning ice cream at Puhoi was the best. Slurps!!! That was soooo good!

Anyway, back to our tour, upon leaving the strawberry farm, we drove past Hamilton…

…but we did not stop there as we were heading back to Auckland for our dinner. I saw this banner across the road that caught my attention…

The Hollies? Gosh! You would have to be as old as I am to know who they are! Well, if you don’t know this, the remake of one of their hit songs was the official UK’s Christmas No. 1 for 2012. You can click the link to watch the video – and who knows, the song may even sound familiar to you. Wink! Wink!

Next post – dinner, of course!!! Make sure you come back to join us, ok? Cheerio!!!

Walk with me…

This was one of the highlights in our one-week stay in Auckland, New Zealand.

It was at the gathering we had with Melissa and her friends in Wellington when somebody asked whether we would be going to Hobbiton when we got to Auckland. Being unfamiliar with the LOTR (Lord of the Rings) Trilogy and all things related, I did not know about this place at all and thought that all this while, they filmed the movies at places around Wellington. I quickly texted my friend there and asked if we could go and almost instantly, she replied that we would be going.

When I told Melissa that, she was smiling from ear to ear – so very happy and thrilled about it. I did encourage her to go on a tour to one of the LOTR shooting locations near Wellington when she was there but she never did as she was bogged down with her studies and assignments and besides, those tours were not cheap and she could not get any of her coursemates to go with her.

So there we were on a tour of the movie set of The Hobbit – An Unexpected Journey…

We boarded a coach at the information centre in Matamata and it took us to this place. On the way there, we were briefed on how the movie producer/director, Peter Jackson went in a helicopter all over New Zealand in search of the perfect location to shoot the movie…and he spotted the Alexander Farm. To cut a long story short, a deal was drawn up and the Alexanders were sent on a long holiday, all expenses paid…while their farm was used for the shooting of the film.

Upon arrival at the place, we got off the coach and went on another one that took us to a drop-off point in the site proper and from there, we had to walk to get around the huge place to see all the things there. Walk??? Omigawd!!!! Luckily, I had a heavy breakfast and had the energy to last through it all.

There were many hobbit holes…

…one after another…

…and this one had a chimney even…

On the tour, I saw many things of interest, like this scarecrow, for instance…

Actually, that was the first time I had ever seen a “real” scarecrow! They certainly do not make them like this in our part of the world.

I loved this letter box too…

– that would be ideal for the delivery boy to put the newspaper in the early morning especially when it is raining…and this must be their carpentry workshop…

…and when we walked past this place…

I was so tickled and could not help calling out to my friend to tell her that on her previous visit, she had left something that belonged to her there. Can you guess what I was talking about? LOL!!!

This must be where the Hobbits reared their bees for honey…

…and there were some very nice, quaint-looking houses around, here…

…and there…

The scenery at the place was simply awesome…

…and would surely take your breath away. You may be able to see how the rolling plains in the distance were dotted with sheep…

After all, this was supposed to be a sheep….

…and cattle…

farm.

This one shows you the Green Dragon, “a place to drink, a place to meet, a place to rest your hairy feet.”

You can see it in the distance, right after the bridge and in the photograph, you can see the long and winding path on which we had to walk to get around the place – uphill, downhill…through valleys and forests…past cabbage patches…

…and those of you who have seen the movie would be familiar with this – the Party Tree…

…and thankfully, at the end of it all, we were served free beer and cider…

…at the pub in the aforementioned Green Dragon. I had neither though but I downed a few glasses of water at one go after that long trek around the movie set. I think that was the first and only time when I was in New Zealand that I ended up sweating…but just a bit!

I went around the place and spotted this window which I thought would make very nice pictures so I took a few of Melissa sitting there. This is one of them…

All in all, it was a great experience and we had a wonderful time going around the place. To think that originally, the Alexanders wanted everything in their farm restored to its original state after the filming was over and done but luckily, they had a change of heart and decided to keep the place as it was and to open it up to movie lovers and anybody who would care to drop by.

Thank you so very much to my NZ friends for making this lifetime opportunity possible. We had a great time and we certainly hope you did too.