We go to Wellington and Hobbiton

Meredith and I are hanging out on the deck of our lovely house in the Plimmerton suburb of Wellington, looking out on the bluest water I have ever seen.  The weather is fantastic.  Bright sun but not too hot, small breeze.  We are wondering what we did in a previous life to deserve this--or whether we will have to serve some extra time in Purgatory to make up for it.  Oh well, live in the moment, right?

On Wednesday, we decided to take the train into Wellington City.  The train station is only a ten minute walk through the tiny town of Plimmerton.  The train runs every half hour and takes 29 minutes to get to the main station in Wellington.  We got off the train and started walking toward the information office.

There were quite a few seaford restaurants along the shore, as you might imagine.  But landlubbers like us had to find one with some beef/chicken we liked on the menu.

Wellington considers itself a very artsy place.  There are sculptures everywhere.  Some make sense

This one is apparently a tribute to a rugby victory.  Rugby, referred to as "footy" here, appears to be an national obsession.

Other statures don't make quite as much sense.

But most refer to the maritime character and history of the town.

This one seems to be famous.  It's called Solace in the Wind.  I believe it is anatomically correct, but Meredith and I were too polite to check that out.

We could not find a restaurant to our liking along the harbor so we went to Cuba Street, the coolest street in the city, we were told.  And the artsiest.  We stopped at a sidewalk cafe and had some great food but were distracted by some really terrible music from a fellow who apparently was self-taught in guitar--and pretty recently--and by these two "dancers."  The quotes are because it looked to us that the only choreography was rolling around each other.  Perhaps that could have been interesting, but definitely not from these two.

 We did a little shopping on Cuba and then want back to the harborside.  We were really impressed by the houses right along the water.  Some reminded us of San Francisco style

Another section reminded us both of Positano, Italy, on the Amalfi Coast.

Many were built right on the cliffs and seemed to be hanging over the water.

I especially liked this one.

We found a grill overlooking the small local beach.

And sat down for a drink.  As you can see, the weather was very nice, though it was a bit windy.
Behind us, we watched as the ferry to the South Island came into dock. We are going on that ferry in a few days.

The waterfront walk is very interesting.  Obviously, there are plenty of boats tied up.

But there were also boat houses along the water.

And even a couple of pop-up stores, making do with what looked like shipping crates.

One sold fabric, which I thought was kind of unusual.

I also have to mention what appears to be a love affair with the bean-bag chair.  We saw at least two waterside bars with many of them for customers.

Go figure.

We were also surprised that so much of the harborside is pretty industrial  Even in the pedestrian parts it's not usual to see a big crane like those used in off-loading cargo.  But the harbor is pretty small and you have to get your goods in somewhere, I guess.

We took the train and made our own dinner--yes it's a hardship--including some unbelievably sweet corn from the garden here.  The owners encouraged us to take vegetables from the garden.  There may be no corn left by the end of our trip.

The next day we decided to go to Hobbiton, which was a kind of crazy decision since neither of us is a big fan the films.  But it just seemed the thing to do in New Zealand.  The trip involved driving 5 1/2 hours there and back, but the scenery made it worth it.  We drove by these snow-capped mountains.

And an active volcano, which we later learned had erupted last in 2012..

And we drove by the gorgeous Lake Taupo.

The trip went fast.  We were headed toward Matamata, which appeared to be a town in the middle of no where, so we were quite surprised by its size and amenities when we arrived.  Of course, a lot of it revolves around the Hobbit movie set , used by the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit movies, which is on a farm about twenty minutes outside of town.  The information office sets the tone.

Other retailers got on the bandwagon, though it appears you have to be licensed to sell Hobbit stuff.

You can't just show up at the ranch; you have to take a tour.  So we got on the bus and went to Hobbiton.

It was well worth the trip.  So many really cute houses and gardens; we wanted to live there.  With the trend toward tiny houses in the U.S. (if you don't know what I mean, Google it), we would fit right in.

 There were 44 houses altogether, each one made to look like a particular kind of person lives there, for instance, this one was for a miller.

We did feel kind of sorry for our guide Kelsey.

I think that of the 26 people on our tour, four spoke English as a first language, and some seemed to have non English at all.  They would talk in their native languages when she was speaking.  Very rude.

At the end of the tour, we got a beer at the Green Dragon Inn

Then we were off again for another 5 1/2 hour drive.  Yes, we are crazy, but there are compensations:

Today, as I noted, we are hanging around.  We have plans to go into Wellington for a nice dinner.  We are so spoiled!!!!