We’ve just arrived in Fiji for the penultimate leg of our journey. Our stop in Auckland was short but sweet; we arrived mid-afternoon two days ago, and checked out first thing this morning. The first evening, we walked around the city, under the sky tower and down towards the harbour, stopping for a drink before dinner. This sounds lovely, but what I didn’t realise is that Auckland’s streets are all either uphill or downhill, and I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: Londoners don’t climb hills.
We were both SO excited for yesterday. I’ve been a big Lord of the Rings fan since I was so young, and Saf has been infatuated with Gollum since the time he came home, a little tipsy, to find me watching the Hobbit film during Gollum’s big riddle scene. Thus a new love was kindled. So of course, we weren’t going to miss the Hobbiton tour while we were here. It was another long drive to get to Matamata, but so worth it. The surrounding farm is so beautiful, definitely a place worthy of being a home for hobbits.
We were led around the set of the Shire, where we saw dozens of hobbit holes, areas that we recognised from the films, and learned all kinds of fun facts. For instance, did you know there is a tree above Bag End that died after filming the LOTR films, so when it came to filming the Hobbit, the set design team had to rebuild the exact same tree, with 200,000 hand painted leaves, only slightly smaller as it would have been 60 years younger? All for 11 seconds of screen time? Crazy.
We also saw Samwise’s house, the Party Tree, and had a (whole half a) pint at the Green Dragon. We had booked to stay for lunch, so while everyone else took the coach back to the tour entrance, we stayed and enjoyed a feast fit for a hobbit.
Sadly, we failed in our plan to sneak off and live in a hobbit hole forever, so we had to get started on the long drive home. We have discovered, however, that New Zealand radio is excellent, so we had a good time channel hopping during the journey.
Although the weather in New Zealand has been fairly good the whole time we’ve been here, last night decided to kick up a parting storm. There was a full on hurricane going on ALL NIGHT, which helpfully rattled the windows in their frames and sent drivers into a frenzy outside. Unsurprisingly, not much sleep was to be had (by me. Saf slept through the whole thing).
We said our final goodbyes to New Zealand, and flew to Nadi airport in Fiji, where we’ve spent the afternoon swimming and sunbathing. I have a feeling we’re going to be alright here.
I probably won’t have much to update you with over the next few days. Just a lot of 😴 in the 🌞 by the 🌊
See you soon!!
Snzzzzzzzz
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Claudia Bow 