Day 2: Hobbiton and Rotorua

It’s a sobering moment to realize that you have outgrown your childhood fantasies. I read J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit when I was 11, and I’ve read The Lord of the Rings in its entirety every year since. I am both proud and abashed to admit that I could speak Elvish at one point in my life. For as long as I could remember, I dreamt of visiting Middle Earth. I may even have considered going to New Zealand during Peter Jackson’s filming to see if they would take me on as an extra or grunt worker on set (probably I would have been put to work wiring fake oak leaves to fake trees, but I did imagine somehow being cast as an Elf). It was surreal today to finally walk into the Shire. In all honesty, it was bittersweet to be interested but not enthralled, fascinated but not obsessed. Middle Earth will always hold a special place in my soul, and in memory. But I guess I’ve grown up. And I’m at peace with that.

Won was a trooper, and gamely posed and took pictures all morning.

After the Hobbit adventure, we drove down to Rotorua and had an an entire afternoon to explore the Waiotapu Geothermal formations. The volcanic action under ground pushes boiling water and mud to the surface, where different minerals and chemicals create vivid and otherworldly colors. It’s visually brilliant and beautiful…

We are headed down to Wellington tomorrow, then on by ferry to the South Island.

March 9, 2018