Kia ora! This week I wanted to share a little bit about what it’s like being across the world for Easter. I’m not from a super religious family, we used to go to church a lot more than we do now, but it’s interesting to me to see how seriously holidays like Easter are taken here. Since they value work-life balance so much here, almost every store was closed besides essential shops like dairies (convenience stores) and many restaurants all weekend (and I got off work on Friday and Monday!) Even with so many things closed (and the rain almost constant all weekend), I was still able to make the most of the weekend in Auckland with my family before we fly to Queenstown tomorrow for the remainder of their time here.
Friday in Hobbiton
On Friday, we woke up super early to do a tour of Hobbiton in Rotorua, which is about two hours south of Auckland. As I mentioned in another blog, while we aren’t superfans of the series, my family has always enjoyed the Lord of the Rings movies. Knowing they were entirely filmed in New Zealand, we couldn’t miss the Hobbiton experience. We took a bus ride with people from all over the world to get there, and our driver stopped to let us stretch our legs at a beautiful scenic spot. Once there, I had a sausage roll (new favorite Kiwi snack) and we hopped on the tour bus. The bus was playing music from the movies which really added to the experience, and we were completely surrounded by sheep on the ride there. We were able to see the spot where Frodo got on the carriage with Gandalf on the quick ride to the Shire.
The Shire was exactly how it looked in the movies! It was basically lush rolling hills with “Hobbit Holes” (their homes) placed within them, which made up the set for the films. They explained to us that a lot of the original set was torn down after the filming but Peter Jackson, the director of the movies, wanted to bring them back as an authentic tourist attraction. The entire area surrounding the Shire is a working sheep farm, and luckily the owners were willing to keep the movie set tours open on their farm for people to enjoy. We even got to go inside one of the Hobbit Holes which was fully furnished and everything was scaled to 83% of human size, so we felt like giants walking through. The tour ended with a drink at the tavern which added to the feeling of being in the movies. Overall super cool experience if you like the movies and I definitely recommend!
Saturday at the Wahs game
On Saturday, we spent much of the morning and early afternoon shopping. I have come to love Glassons, a clothing store that we also had at our mall in Sydney, so I got a bunch of cooler weather clothes to wear to work my last few weeks and for Queenstown where the temperature is in the 50s most days. We had lunch at a food court and I got some of the best butter chicken that I’ve had my whole time abroad, and the rest of my family shared pho and a couple of Thai noodle dishes that they absolutely loved!
Then, we all got ready for the Warriors game, which I was lucky to get tickets for as it was almost sold out! The Warriors are NZ’s rugby league team, and they were playing the #3 Brisbane Broncos, making for an exciting match. None of my family had ever really watched rugby before, but we brushed up on the rules and the difference between rugby league and rugby union before the game (I’m still not really sure what the difference is LOL. I’m pretty sure rugby league is faster paced with more players on the field, but I’m not exactly sure why they have two sports that are so similar).
We were lucky to be sat behind a very nice couple that were very willing to explain what was going on to us at different points throughout the match. I remember reading in the Culture Smart books that both Aussies and Kiwis love their sport and will be more than happy to teach a foreigner about the rules. My dad has Philadelphia Eagles season tickets so he goes to most home games and I get to go with him to one or two games a season so we are very familiar with live sport culture, and I would say this was definitely very similar. Wahs fans are very passionate! The Warriors won in overtime which I think was a huge win for them being that the Broncos were such a strong team. It was a super lively and exciting atmosphere and I’m so glad we went!
Sunday at Waiheke Island
On Sunday, we were sort of running out of things to do in the Auckland CBD (and even more stuff was closed being Easter Sunday) so we decided in the afternoon to take a ferry to Waiheke Island. It was raining on and off all day and a lot of the winery attractions were closed due to the holiday but it was such a beautiful place! I’m very glad I was able to eventually make it there since I missed the Bucknell trip due to being sick. We went to a gorgeous restaurant overlooking the water for some light apps and had some amazing gelato. After shelling and sitting around for a while on the beach it started to get fairly cold and we could tell rain was coming so we headed back to make the 5:30 ferry back to Auckland and boy, is it good we did! The rain came in hard almost immediately when we got to the wharf. Our trip back was very rough with the waves and we even had to slowly trail a vessel that was having trouble just to make sure it made it back safely. We ended the rainy night with Doordash watching the new season of Black Mirror.
Off to Queenstown!
With the school holidays and getting off Friday for Anzac Day too, most of my team won’t be in the office this week anyway so I was very fortunate to be given off work Tuesday-Thursday this week. I haven’t been to the South Island yet so I am very excited to see Queenstown! My coworkers have been extremely keen to give me suggestions of things to do this whole time, and they made up a whole list of must-dos. We’re planning to go to Milford Sound, Aoraki (Mt Cook), take a jetboat ride on the river, go to the Onsen hot pools, and check out a whole list of restaurants and cafes that I was recommended. I’m super excited to see another part of Aotearoa! Ngā mihi!