Posts Tagged With: new zealand

Auckland: December 14-16

Posted on 18.12.2012 by luftikus2001

We made it!

Auckland is the final destination of our NZ encounter…we are blessed with summer & sunshine. Almost 4 weeks of travel by campervan have turned a holiday into adventure. We very much enjoyed both south and north island.

Skycity: Skytower = Highest building in southern hemisphere

Christmas in Auckland = Xmas & Summer…must be the heat 😉

Santa’s Little Helper / Stand-In

Our stay in Auckland was topped by a very special screening of “The Hobbit” in fantastic 3D HFR (high frame rate)…

NEXT STOP: AUSTRALIA! Adelaide, we are coming! (well, actually this blog is already written here in our hotel room in central Adelaide 🙂 = we had a safe flight to Aussie-land)

Categories: Uncategorized | Tags: auckland, new zealand, RTW | Leave a comment

Hobbiton (The Movie Set Tour): December 14

Posted on 14.12.2012 by luftikus2001

We have dedicated a whole day for a fantastic visit of Matamata’s world famous sheep farm: HOBBITON – The Movie Set of “Lord of the Rings” & “The Hobbit” !!!

…we had a “private” tour (which would cost almost triple the price of a regular tour) for a very simple reason: nobody had booked the timeslot, we had chosen. However, immediate slots before and after ours were guided tours between 15 and 30 people. Luck, luck, luck! So, we enjoyed a 2-hour tour with our guide Cameron…lots of interesting stories. We also had a chance to talk to some “people behind the scenes”: gardeners, bar keepers, waitresses.

Pictures of the day:

Categories: Uncategorized | Tags: hobbiton, new zealand, RTW | Leave a comment

The Trip to Mount Doom (aka Tongariro Alpine Crossing): December 10

Posted on 12.12.2012 by luftikus2001

Continuing with our tour of middle earth, this time in the center of the north island in the volcano area. The volcanoes Tongariro and Ngauruhoe were used as Mount Doom filming loctaions in LoTR.

Due to the eruption of Tongariro at the end of November only half the route is currently open, with the walk requiring trampers to turn round at the red crater and head back along the same track. But with Tongariro still venting a large amount of steam and throwing out the odd rock we could understand why the route was partially closed.

After a 1.5 hour walk through a valley full of signs of lava flows, the walk then steeply climbs up to the southern crater, which could also double for a moon crater. After crossing the crater it is more steep climbing up scree rock to the red crater with views then over to the blue and emerald lakes, and steam cloud of Mount Tongariro.

Described as New Zealand’s best one day hike, the hike took us 7 hours there and back.

Pictures of the day: