I’m catching up now, so these next few posts will be long on photos, and short on text. We’re having a fabulous time here in New Zealand, but sketchy wifi and an excess of fun have made keeping up with the blog tricky.

We made our way from Coromandel through twisty turny, beautiful mountain roads (well, beautiful to me anyway… I didn’t have to drive a camper van through them… ), and down to Hobbiton. Apparently a location scout for Peter Jackson was in a helicopter and from the air, saw the Party Tree that would eventually become the anchor for the shire. We were given a tour of the set by Dr. Brad, who is one of only five people in the world to have earned a doctorate in Hobbits. So we were in good hands for our tour.

We are not exactly big Tolkien fans – Tim and I have both read and loved the books (although it’s been many, many years…), but we haven’t watched many of the movies as a family yet, so we had to view this trip as a down-payment on future viewings. Even without Tolkien super-fan status, the tour was absolutely magical. It really felt as if we were transported to The Shire… And managed to somehow make us nostalgic for our days in England.