Part 2 of New Zealand - Hobbiton and Rotorua

 We drove from Waitomo to Hobbiton.  Ok, so I am going to admit right now .. I have never seen Lord of the Rings movies.  Jordan made me watch parts of it only because he said I could not go unless I have seen it.  I am just not into that at all.  Jordan on the other hand really likes the movies.  I watched just the parts that showed the Shire and I was done.  I am lame I know. 

 So this is about all you get to see of Hobbiton.  We had to sign a waiver that said we would not post any pictures or videos on the web because of the upcoming filming they are doing.  They were working on the set as we walked through it and that was kind of cool.

 After we toured the set and saw the shire we headed over to the sheep shearing demonstration.  The guy doing it had to go to school to learn how.  I guess that is pretty normal. He also said that he plays rugby on the side.

 Taking their turns at feeding the baby sheep.

 The little Hobbit himself.  This was in the souvenir store and cafe where we had lunch.

 Later that day we drove to Rotorua, New Zealand.  We stayed the night here.  I told Jordan that if we were going to go to New Zealand I wanted to go to a Maori dinner and show.  So here we are.  I very much enjoyed it. 

 When we first arrived.  They were meeting the new chiefs from each tribe.  They bused us all over and each bus was a different tribe.  Not sure how many. 

 Then they took us into their village and showed us lots of demonstrations how they lived and how they worked.

 Lots of different statues.  Dottie was a little more into it than Emma was.

Dinner.  They cooked it under ground. Then after this we actually went to the show where they sang and danced.  We didn't get many pictures the lighting was very dark. But it was probably the best part if the whole thing.  By the time we actually ate dinner it was about 8pm. my kids were starving.  If I had known we wouldn't eat till then I would have fed them before hand.  Then we had to sit around and wait till everyone was ready to get back on the bus.  Everybody was having a good time by this point but we were ready to just get the kids in bed.  We did not get home until 10pm.  But I have to say it was worth it.  I enjoyed my Maori dinner and show.

Part 1 of New Zealand - Waitomo

 On the day we arrived we didn't get into Auckland until about 5pm.  We had some issues and didn't get out of there until about 7.  So we just headed down to the B&B we were staying at.  We passed that hedgehog on the way on the last post.  Let me go over some of the issues we had upon landing in Auckland.  The flight it self went great!  It all started at customs.  (This was probably meant for yesterday's post oh well)  Just FYI  don't try and enter a country with fresh fruit and vegetables.  To my defense..  we were moving and I was trying to clean out the fridge that morning and the taxi came early so I was rushed.  I threw the peaches and carrots in my bag thinking we could snack on them on the plane.  I completely forgot about them.  Well customs did not like it one bit.  They took us over and interrogated us, threatened to charge us a huge fine.  Finally I just broke down and was in tears.. and the guy backed way off saying I am not going to charge you but I really need you to think twice about bringing this stuff in, even if it was an accident.  I was a mess..   So we move on and go get our car rental where we realized we forgot to get our car seats when we got our luggage, which was back before customs.  Lovely..  Poor Jordan trying to take care of everything and his wife is a mess.  So 30 min later we get our car seats and head out to the car.  Backing up a bit we had a hard time deciding what size car to get.  We shipped a ton of stuff home but we still had a lot of luggage.  So we decided to reserve a full size car over a van or SUV we knew it would be tight but we thought we could make it fit.  We get out to our car and it's TINY.  There we are standing in the rain our kids are a mess I am a mess and we are already running way behind.  Jordan goes back in.. they don't have any full size cars to rent us.  What the heck..  that's what we reserved.  We didn't have time to go look for another car rental.. we just went with it.  (Well you know Jordan he did get a free tank of gas and we brought it back in on fumes)  Packed in a tiny car we headed out.  We made it to Waitomo.  We booked a place that was a B&B for families.  And it was an Ostrich farm..  it was great.  A little ghetto but it worked for us.  Our hosts were a very nice family and they had some granddaughters that were about the same age as the girls.

On the farm they had lots of other animals which were all miniture animals except the Ostriches of course.  Here is Emma with one of them.

 We also visited the Kiwi house in Otorohanga.  We had to see a Kiwi in New Zealand.  Sad we could not take pictures of it but it was the funniest looking bird we have ever seen.  It almost looked fake to us.  It was interesting to watch it.
Here are the girls watching some parrots.

 Back at the Ostrich farm.  Meet Victoria the Ostrich.  We had to wait for the rains to stop so we could walk around the grounds.  It rained every day we were there.  This was one of the only ostriches we could get close too. 




 Isn't this a great picture... I love it.  To bad Victoria's head got cut off in the picture.  (picture below)

 The girls really enjoyed this.   Notice Cooper on the left side of the picture.  They let you in but not the babies.  They weren't sure how Victoria would react.  That was okay with me.

 I have no idea how these little legs hold up these big bodies on these cows.

 These three ostriches lived right out side where we were staying.  The tall one is the male.  He did not like it when we got close to his women. 

 They showed us how to drain the ostrich egg. 

 The kids taking their turns on riding the ponies.

Even Cooper got his turn.  He really did enjoy it.  They also got to feed some of the animals a bottle  the kids were in heaven at this place.  To bad we didn't get to stay longer.  We also got fresh homemade bread with our breakfast every morning. 

 Well the main reason we went to Waitomo was for the worm caves.  The word Waitomo comes from the Māori language wai meaning water and tomo meaning a doline or sinkhole; it can thus be translated to be water passing through a hole. These Caves are believed to be over two million years old.  Jordan was a little more adventurous then the rest of us.  Plus there was no way to take Cooper down.

 Here are the Glowworms. (They are not really worms)They may sometimes resemble worms, but all are insects.

Click HERE for more images.  I tried to take some pictures but they just didn't turn out.  It was amazing to see. 

 Jordan did a little tubing trip down one of the rivers.  He had to get all suited up.  He had a BLAST to say the least.  Really glad he could do it even if we didn't get to go with him.

 Moa bones.  A Moa was only found in New Zealand I believe. It looks very similar to an ostrich, emu and cassowary.    They are extinct now but the bones are usually found down in the caves.  They would hide down there for shelter.

The tour guides took these pictures of the group Jordan went with. 

Coming out of the caves.  The girls and I did get a chance to go just not on the same tour Jordan went on .  We went on a walking tour.  But this almost looks like the same entrance that we went down.  Just a hole in the ground.  We went in the evening about 8pm.  I wasn't sure I was going  to get the girls down there.  We talked about it I told them it was going to be dark.  We made it and once they saw the glowworms they thought it was so cool that they didn't have any more problems.  We saw the river that Jordan floated down.  Our tour guide was actually the son of our hosts at the B&B.  So the reason we went in the evening is because when we came out of the cave and up the stairs it was dark outside at this point and the glowworms were all over the walls  but you couldnt seem them unless it was dark.  It literally looked like stars like the pictures above (I found online). 

on our way to New Zealand

 On our flight to New Zealand.  We decided to take a 3 day layover on our way home from Australia. 

 Cooper was all bundled up ready to go watching his cartoons with his headphones on.  He actually kept them on, I think he was just to tired to try and take them off.

Dottie about to eat her lunch... We were taken care of pretty well.  It was a short 4 hour flight and everyone did well.





In New Zealand on our way to the B&B and we saw a hedge hog crossing the road.

A little bit of this, a little bit of that

I guess I am going to start out with the Queen Victoria Market.  We loved going to the market.  If you received any souvenirs from us it was most likely from this market.  The Queen Victoria Market is the largest open air market in the southern hemisphere.  We lived with in walking distance and would walk up to it every once in a while.

 You could pretty much get anything you wanted here from fruits and vegetables to shoes, souvenirs, toys, clothes, even fabric.

The fruits and veggies were pretty reasonably priced. Towards the end of the day all of the food vendors were marking everything down. We didn't get a video of it, but they would be yelling out the price discount and trying to out due the other vendors. Pretty cool to watch. We liked to wait until the afternoon to get the good deals. 

 Port Melbourne Primary School.  This is where Emma went to school.  It was a good experience for her. She was able to do a swimming course and learned to swim on her own.  She participated in the school play "The Lion, The Witch and the Walk-in Robe".


 To the left is Fred the crossing guard who helped us cross the street everyday.

 It was formally known and Graham Street School before becoming Port Melbourne because it was located on Graham Street.  It was a pretty old school.  They had recently undergone renovations and added new buildings. 

 We love IGA...
IGA was located at the bottom of our building where we lived. It was a small grocery store where you could get almost everything.

The name of the street on which we lived.

 Our garage door.  About 100 other people also used this garage door to our parking garage. 

Our Boeing friends who happened to be coming out of their apartment just when we were out taking pictures.  They lived in the building next to us.

 Medici's restaurant.  This was the first place we went the morning we flew in.  We had breakfast there.  It was one of the many restaurants along the boardwalk underneath the apartments where we lived.  We really like Medicis.  They made the best sticky date pudding.

 So I have no idea why this is side ways.  I rotated it and it shows up rotated but then I load it onto blogger is does this.  So this is the gelato stand also on the board walk.  We went there way too many times.

 Just a picture of the walk way below where we lived.  We walked up and down this all the time.  Usually with the girls on their scooters and Cooper in the stroller.

 A look up to our balcony.  We have the grill on the end.

 The front entrance to our building.  It was very secure.  You couldn't just walk in.  If we got a package in the mail the mail man had to call up to our apt and let us know to come down and get it.  Or we had to push certain buttons on the phone system to open the door for them and let them up on the "lift" or elevator. 

 Waiting for the lift. They got very used to this.

 We lived on the 13th floor

The hall down to our apartment

 Again.. not sure why this isn't turned.  Emma and Dottie with their friends from church Brooke and Becca.
 This is what they were usually doing in between classes.  Chasing each other around the building even though I told them not to.  The only interaction Dottie had with kids was at church so she was not very reverent at church.  Oh well.  They were happy to have the girls in primary as there was only 10 other kids. Lots of singles with no children in that ward.

 Around the City.  This was taken at Federation Square in the City.  (Also where Oprah did a public appearance, if your into that).  When ever we went into the city we walked.  It was just easier that way.
 Of course you could rent one of these cool bikes.  They had these all over and you didn't have to return it to the same place you got it from.  They had one of these by our place as well.  We never did get one though, ha.  To much trouble with the kids I guess.  I am not even sure how expensive it was.

 Flinders Street Station.  This is the main railway station in the city. Always very busy on this corner.  Lots of people.

And of course Burger King.. I mean Hungry Jacks.  Everything was the same except the name.  Click on the link to read more about it.