New Zealand #1: Auckland & Matamata
Mood: 
|| Rushed
Tune : Taylor Swift - "Crazier"
June 16: I left Sydney in the morning and while the flight wasn't very long I didn't arrive in New Zealand until the evening, because of the time difference. Found my way to the hostel, which was awesome by the way. No bunk beds, just four separate beds in a spacious room, there were extra blankets and everything, best hostel I've stayed in so far. I didn't do a whole lot that first evening. I made a quick stroll through the city and admired the Skytower in the centre of it which was lit up at night (and which, btw, is the tower that Zachary Quinto bungee jumped off when he was in Auckland for the Star Trek premiere xD).
Last view on Australia
Pretty clouds
New Zealand!
Skytower
Inside Skycity -- I love the elevator
June 17: I spent the whole day exploring the city and doing touristy things: I went to the Art Gallery, the Auckland Museum, strolled through the Domain and Albert Park. I also had an awesome Korean pancake for lunch. And when I passed a Burger King I saw a poster in the window for the Star Trek toys (the ones that talk). Unfortunately the poster was old and they had new toys now but 3 BK's later I was still managed to find Spock! (the ZQ version) and I was also in the possession of the poster (with Zach and Chris on the front).
Walking through Auckland I came across the Civic Theatre and saw that the musical Cats was playing there. Having not seen this musical yet I enquired about tickets and I managed to get one for the student price for that same night \o/ To be quite honest it wasn't not one of the best musicals I've seen so far. I mean, the songs were brilliant and the costumes/make-up stunning, but a storyline was pretty non-existent and having never read anything about the show before it was hard to get into it. Still glad I went, but I will not likely see it again soon.
Uhm, lol...
In Albert Park
Skytower by day light
Auckland Museum
June 18: My plan for today was to join a city orientation which would pretty much consume the entire day but because of a really daft receptionist (who, I found out, got fired because she was just that stupid) my plans fell through. Instead I spent a lot of time at Real Groovy which is a big CD/DVD store that also has second hand stuff. I managed to get my hands on the first season of Party of Five (which I haven't seen in years! And I need stuff to watch at night while travelling when I don't have Internet) and some Gilmore Girls for the grand total of $12 - New Zealand dollars, so that was really cheap.
In the afternoon I walked all the way to Mount Eden (a volcanic cone) and went to the top where I saw a huge crater, which was awesome. While it was overgrown with grass, it was still hugely impressive and I'd never seen anything like it before. And that was all I did today really, I also had to pack my suitcase again as I would leave the next day and the rest of the night was spent watching Supernatural season 4 (I watched all episodes in less than 4 days, I am loving this show all over again!).
On my way to Mount Eden
View from the top
The crater
June 19: I left Auckand today and took a three hour long bus trip to the township of Matamata. It's quite an insignificant town, with really not much to see or do except for the fact that this is where Hobbiton was created for the Lord of the Rings trilogy! I used to be a huge fan of the movies (still am, just have been occupied with other fandoms lately) which is one of the main reasons I even decided to come to New Zealand. So of course I just had to visit this village. Having my tour booked for the next day, today was spent exploring the village and walking to the only other touristy thing in the village: Firth Tower (which was like 4km each way). It was a really nice stroll because the landscape was just stunning (grassy hills around me and mountains in the distance). The Tower itself wasn't overly impressive, so I didn't go into the museum, just took a few pictures from the outside.
When I went back to my accommodation (which was a farm stay, as Matamata is so small there are no hostels or anything) two more guests had arrived: a couple my age from LA. Obviously I interrogated asked them about stuff to do in California for when I go there next month and we got talking for a while. It turned out they had the same Hobbiton tour as me planned, but had it scheduled for the afternoon, instead of the morning. However, they decided to change the time to the earlier one as well.
-- I will make a separate update for the Hobbiton trip soon, because I have SO many pictures from that tour that it deserves its own LJ-entry.
Sign outside the visitor's centre of Matamata
Close-up Gollum statue
Other side
It's a hobbit hole!!
The name of the bus is Merry! Unfortunately we got Frodo the next day
On my way to Firth Tower
Firth Tower
In Matamata centre xD I also saw a store called Strider and one called Middle-Earth
More pictures can be found HERE.
|| Rushed
Tune : Taylor Swift - "Crazier"
June 16: I left Sydney in the morning and while the flight wasn't very long I didn't arrive in New Zealand until the evening, because of the time difference. Found my way to the hostel, which was awesome by the way. No bunk beds, just four separate beds in a spacious room, there were extra blankets and everything, best hostel I've stayed in so far. I didn't do a whole lot that first evening. I made a quick stroll through the city and admired the Skytower in the centre of it which was lit up at night (and which, btw, is the tower that Zachary Quinto bungee jumped off when he was in Auckland for the Star Trek premiere xD).
Last view on Australia
Pretty clouds
New Zealand!
Skytower
Inside Skycity -- I love the elevator
June 17: I spent the whole day exploring the city and doing touristy things: I went to the Art Gallery, the Auckland Museum, strolled through the Domain and Albert Park. I also had an awesome Korean pancake for lunch. And when I passed a Burger King I saw a poster in the window for the Star Trek toys (the ones that talk). Unfortunately the poster was old and they had new toys now but 3 BK's later I was still managed to find Spock! (the ZQ version) and I was also in the possession of the poster (with Zach and Chris on the front).
Walking through Auckland I came across the Civic Theatre and saw that the musical Cats was playing there. Having not seen this musical yet I enquired about tickets and I managed to get one for the student price for that same night \o/ To be quite honest it wasn't not one of the best musicals I've seen so far. I mean, the songs were brilliant and the costumes/make-up stunning, but a storyline was pretty non-existent and having never read anything about the show before it was hard to get into it. Still glad I went, but I will not likely see it again soon.
Uhm, lol...
In Albert Park
Skytower by day light
Auckland Museum
June 18: My plan for today was to join a city orientation which would pretty much consume the entire day but because of a really daft receptionist (who, I found out, got fired because she was just that stupid) my plans fell through. Instead I spent a lot of time at Real Groovy which is a big CD/DVD store that also has second hand stuff. I managed to get my hands on the first season of Party of Five (which I haven't seen in years! And I need stuff to watch at night while travelling when I don't have Internet) and some Gilmore Girls for the grand total of $12 - New Zealand dollars, so that was really cheap.
In the afternoon I walked all the way to Mount Eden (a volcanic cone) and went to the top where I saw a huge crater, which was awesome. While it was overgrown with grass, it was still hugely impressive and I'd never seen anything like it before. And that was all I did today really, I also had to pack my suitcase again as I would leave the next day and the rest of the night was spent watching Supernatural season 4 (I watched all episodes in less than 4 days, I am loving this show all over again!).
On my way to Mount Eden
View from the top
The crater
June 19: I left Auckand today and took a three hour long bus trip to the township of Matamata. It's quite an insignificant town, with really not much to see or do except for the fact that this is where Hobbiton was created for the Lord of the Rings trilogy! I used to be a huge fan of the movies (still am, just have been occupied with other fandoms lately) which is one of the main reasons I even decided to come to New Zealand. So of course I just had to visit this village. Having my tour booked for the next day, today was spent exploring the village and walking to the only other touristy thing in the village: Firth Tower (which was like 4km each way). It was a really nice stroll because the landscape was just stunning (grassy hills around me and mountains in the distance). The Tower itself wasn't overly impressive, so I didn't go into the museum, just took a few pictures from the outside.
When I went back to my accommodation (which was a farm stay, as Matamata is so small there are no hostels or anything) two more guests had arrived: a couple my age from LA. Obviously I interrogated asked them about stuff to do in California for when I go there next month and we got talking for a while. It turned out they had the same Hobbiton tour as me planned, but had it scheduled for the afternoon, instead of the morning. However, they decided to change the time to the earlier one as well.
-- I will make a separate update for the Hobbiton trip soon, because I have SO many pictures from that tour that it deserves its own LJ-entry.
Sign outside the visitor's centre of Matamata
Close-up Gollum statue
Other side
It's a hobbit hole!!
The name of the bus is Merry! Unfortunately we got Frodo the next day
On my way to Firth Tower
Firth Tower
In Matamata centre xD I also saw a store called Strider and one called Middle-Earth
More pictures can be found HERE.