Now was the moment we have been waiting years for. Hobbiton!!!
But before we could visit we needed a place to stay. Lane booked us a nice place which ended up canceling on us, now what!? Well he then found The Coolest place just north of Hamilton. An old maternity hospital, yup that's right we stayed at a hospital. Before officially closing their doors in 1996, it was a general hospital, turned maternity hospital, turned hotel.
We stayed on the right side in the Conservatory. They enclosed the porch, now our kitchen, to hold additional beds as the hospital was bursting at the seams. Two stories remain of our room, some believe the conservatory was used to place jaundice babies in the sunlight to get their Vitamin K, and others believe it was an entrance that men used to sneak in after hours to visit their wives and babies.
Here is the porch with a bed and kitchen in it. Fun! If you look closely on the wall you will see a metal box, these are original bedside lamps for the patients. Our room had a total of 8.
Yes, we actually used them for our bed time lights.
Full disclosure, at first we were a tad bit creeped out by the fact we were staying in an old hospital. It grew on us and we loved this adventure. It would have been a different story had it been a psych ward.
Heading into Hamilton we stopped by the temple. Unfortunately for us it was closed the previous July for major renovations. The Distribution Center was open, where we bought the fabulous book "Saints" Volume 1, a well written history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (also available for free online here). Upstairs is a wonderful museum about missionaries, with a focus on missionaries coming to New Zealand. The whole area has multiple chapels and a high school.
Drove another 45 minutes to Raglan's black sand beaches. Where we ate hard boiled eggs and watched kite surfers.
Finally the time has come. . .
Bilbo's Bag End
Sam's abode
The only time Guy took pictures the whole trip, and took plenty!
The Green Dragon for a pint.
Site of Bilbo's birthday party.
Drake took this picture before his camera died for good. Lane is expert now in driving on the left side of the road.
Lane spotted Amber Ln. We U-turned and found an even nicer sign. Of course the responsible thing to do was take a picture.
Kilometers and kilometers of driving called for pit stops of stretching and eating. Lane often assigned exercises for the boys. As you can see this one was a race.
Glow worm cave. First half we walked through the dry portion, nicely paved. Learned about the glow worms that hang on the ceiling and let down a string. Other bugs are attracted to their glow and get stuck on the strings allowing dinner to be served. Tour ended on a boat ride in complete silence and darkness to see the beauty of this creature.
Found a yummy burger joint with ice cream. Not sure it was actual hamburger. . .
Gerbal wheel.
Took these photos as we did a geocache race along the river. Yes, we were racing each other, but mostly racing the sun. Our goal was to hit the 200 mark on this trip, boy did we reach and pass that goal!
Haven't see or eaten at this place in a long time. Once it was spotted it was only a matter of minutes before we had ordered and were seated.
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