I am going on an adventure

Actually, I have returned already from a 3 week adventure in the North Island of New Zealand.

My New Zealand adventure began by meeting up with the rest of 'The Six' at Auckland airport. After spending a couple of hours getting through customs, during which my already spotlessly clean riding boots were taken away and dipped in disinfectant, just in case; we then drove 2 hours to the lovely small city of Hamilton to stay the night and have a delicious Vietnamese dinner. Left to right - Lisa, Deb, Loretta, Fiona, Pen.

Hamilton Gardens. Wow! A series of garden rooms inspired by gardens from different historical periods, each one entered by a narrow doorway revealing a wow moment. A pre-colonial sweet potato garden at the top of this post. And then....Egypt

Tudor England - dragons and unicorns on poles

Persia - magic carpet ride, anyone?

Surrealist art garden. We had to avoid 'falling' through the floor in the entrance.

A giant door. There was also a giant wheelbarrow and deckchair.

The 'trees' had branches that moved. These strange trees are ivy growing over a motion-animated structure. 

Modernist cloud pool. 

 

Japanese pond and zen garden on either side of a pavilion

And many more. Each entrance was a new moment of wonder.

Next stop - Hobbiton - a complete Hobbit town created as a movie set for the Lord of the Rings movies.

Our tour guide told us numerous stories from the filming. Things such removing all the leaves from apple trees and replacing them with hundreds of thousands of wired on silk leaves to make them look like plum trees. 44 hobbit holes have been permanently reconstructed.

They are not full homes, just facades with an empty two metre deep room behind the door, but the attention to detail outside is amazing, including real veggie gardens, washing hanging on lines, models of food etc....

Our tour ended with a free cider in the Green Dragon Inn.

Final stop of the day was a quick look at the museum building in Rotorua. Built in 1907 as a bath house, it has been closed since 2016 due to earthquake damage.