A Journey to Hobbiton and the Waitomo Glowworm Caves

It was Saturday June 10th and it was time for an adventure! I finished packing my bags, cleaning up my room and submitting my internship application in the morning and in the afternoon, I met up with my friends Skye, Rebekah, Autym, and Sophia from the Arcadia Program. We were all going together up north to visit Hobbiton and more!

We took the Express Shuttle over to the airport and fly off to Auckland. We arrived at around 6:00pm in the biggest city in New Zealand. I hadn’t been there since February when I first arrived in New Zealand but it was familiar. Skye and Rebekah went ahead in their Uber to the hostel to check in since reception closed at 7:00 but the rest of us, having checked bags, hung back to retrieve our bags and then headed off. While we were waiting, we ran into another Everton Hall resident who was also visiting Auckland! What are the chances! On the ride to our Youth Hostel, I talked to the Uber driver about what to do in Auckland. He mentioned bungee jumping from the Sky tower but I don’t see that in my future.

Here is a picture of my hostel room. I’ve never stayed in a hostel before so it was an interesting experience for sure. There was a big kitchen and eating area and then the dorm-like rooms. I was staying in a four person room with three random dudes. They didn’t really acknowledge me when I arrived so I knew nothing about them and thus, they were a bit of a mystery to me. Perhaps I’ll learn more as I go along. I left the room almost immediately and we went down Queens Street (main drag of Auckland) to Countdown to get some groceries for the coming days. Then, back to hostel. Tomorrow is an early morning…

I slept poorly. For one, the man below me was a loud snorer. He’d also go “mmmmm” from time to time. Luckily at one point his snoring woke himself up and I was able to go back to sleep before he went back to snoring. I was also very nervous that I would sleep through my alarm and miss the exciting tour. So I ended up waking up and checking my phone to see what time it was very often. And eventually it was 5:30, rise and shine…

I fumbled around trying to get ready, managed to make my bagel and cream cheese in the kitchen and then we went outside for our tour pickup. The tour would be taking us to Hobbiton and the Waitomo Caves, all in one day! Our guide was named Michael and he was such a kind, funny person. I greatly enjoyed listening to him talk.

At the start of our day, it was still dark outside. Michael had us each introduce ourselves. We were five of the eight passengers. There was a couple from Sydney and a woman from Kentucky making up the other three. We all had to rank our knowledge of Lord of the Rings from 1-10. I put a 4 because I had seen the movies but didn’t really follow them very well.

We pulled over at a lookout and watched the sun rise. I really don’t think I’ve ever actually seen the sun rise like I did on that day. Like, I literally saw it appear out of nowhere. It was gorgeous!

After the sun finished rising, we hopped back in the van and continued on to Hobbiton (it’s right near where we stopped for lunch way back during orientation). We arrived around 8:00am and had some time to do some souvenir shopping and go to a cafe. I made some purchases and then got a hot chocolate. Soon, it was time. We got on a big tour bus with like 40 other people and began the Hobbiton tour.

For those of you that are lost on what Hobbiton, I shall now explain. The Lord of the Rings films which are very popular were filmed in New Zealand in the early 2000s. There are characters in the story called Hobbits who live in this gorgeous green happy place called the Shire. Hobbiton is the set they built when filming the movies. They demolished the set following those movies wrapping production but when they had to be rebuild it for the Hobbit movie trilogy, they decided to keep it set up as a tourist attraction.

I learned that when the movie creators were scouting locations for the Shire, they went to ask the owner of their top choice farm if they could look around the property to decide if it was a good fit for the movie. The farmer told them to go away because he was “watching the rugby”. They then went to their second choice. That guy invited them in to watch the rugby and then let them look around. The creators chose that property and now that nicer farmer must be extremely rich and has, as Michael said, “a tourist farm”!

We rode in the bus for a few minutes to get to the set and along the way, the driver played a video of an interview with the director, Peter Jackson. Once in Hobbiton, we were led around through the impressive set. The location had forty-four hobbit holes. I took a photo with a lot of them! Apparently one person once took over 3,000 photos at Hobbiton. Here are some fun photos (less than 3,000) from the visit.

The tour ended at a bar build based on the one from the movie where you could choose either a hard cider or the non-alcoholic option of ginger beer. I opted for the ginger beer. At the end of the tour, they gave us each a free mug as a gift to apologize for the construction going on. I hardly noticed the construction but a free mug is a free mug! The tour was simply lovely.

Michael picked us up and drove us off to our lunch stop. It was a cute cafe in Waitomo where I ate a savory pie (very New Zealand haha) and then we drove a few minutes to get to the Waitomo Caves.

These caves are special because they are filled with glowworms. The worms glow blue in the dark because they evolved that way because if makes bugs think the lights are stars and they fly towards the worms in an effort to escape the cave. Instead, they get trapped by the glowworms and subsequently get eaten.

We weren’t allowed to take photos in the cave but here is a photo of us with a green screened image of the worms. And two photo I was allowed to take at the end of the tour.

At one point, we arrived in what is called “The Cathedral”, a part of the cave with absolutely no echo. They invited people to sing if they were talented enough to show off the excellent acoustics. Apparently famous musicians like Billy Eilish and Katy Perry have visited before and serenaded the crowd. No one was interested in serenading the crowd today so we all worked together to sing “Happy Birthday” to some dude on the tour named Eric who has a birthday next week.

After the tour, we hopped back in our van and began the trek back to Auckland. We did make a much appreciated pitstop at an ice-cream store where I got a scoop of mint chocolate chip and a scoop of Hokey Pokey (a class New Zealand flavor! It is basically vanilla with little crunchy pieces in it). Then a few hours later, we arrived back at our hostel. It was such a pleasant, special day. We saw a sunrise, hobbit holes and glowworms, ate ice cream and pies, and learned interesting facts from Michael. I loved it!

We regrouped at the hostel and then headed back out for dinner. We went to “The Occidental” and I got a yummy Mocktail. I have actually never had one before but I love them! So yummy! Where were they all my life!

We were wiped after that incredibly busy day! Luckily we don’t have to wake up at the crack of dawn tomorrow.

Back in my dorm, I learned one new piece of information about my roommates. One of them said to the other one “You’re from China, right?” and the other guy said “No, France.” so I now know that dude is from France.

Tomorrow, we adventure around Auckland!