Magical Hobbiton

Auckland, New Zealand

Hobbiton!!! A drive down south from Auckland about 2 1/2 hours brings us to Hobbiton, where scenes were filmed for Hobbit and Lord of the Rings. It is absolutely quaint and precious and I loved every moment of it! Tiny houses with round doors built into the side of green, rolling hills - what’s not to love? They even have pint-sized ladders, fishing poles, mailboxes, and clotheslines with pint-sized vests and sweaters hung out to dry.

Our tour guide was David from Germany, a LOTR superfan with short, bleached hair wearing tight khaki sorts. He was full of terrible jokes, likely scripted, enthusiastic and completely harmless. The tattoos covering his forearms were of things like the Aragog sword and the signal Gandalf sketched into Bilbo’s door. Twice when he quizzed our tour group twice the Miller-Geffres delivered! We were able to name all 11 dwarves and Leo correctly answered “I’m going on an adventure!” when asked what Bilbo says to the question, “But where are you going?” in the first scene of the Hobbit.

Leo, Ari, and I took turns reading the Hobbit while driving. I’ll admit, having seen the little hill homes, I was more endeared to this team of questing little warriors.

Yesterday when I went to Bailey Nelson to get new glasses (an exam, two frames plus lenses for only $169 NZD!), I I said out loud to Josh what I’ve known for awhile: I look incredible in glasses. All glasses. It’s my face shape or short hair or something, but I could honestly wear any pair of glasses and look amazing.