Monday, March 9, 2015

More New Zealand fun!!

We woke up somewhat early today- everyone's still trying to recover from Ironman. Kelcie, 'Mr. Sprinkles and Glitter's step mom, wanted to check out a geyser that was close by. We all piled into our cars and raced to get there in time to see it go off.

We were running so late, the guy who ran the parking lot waved us through and told us to come back to pay or else we would miss it. So we quickly parked, and RAN to get there in time. Once we got to the area- thinking we were late, we waited around for a few minutes waiting for it to start. Haha!!
A guide came out and explained that this geyser is one of only a few in the world and was found by mistake. Inmates were washing their clothes in some water nearby, and one of them accidentally dropped their soap into the geyer and it exploded!
 He dropped a bag of stuff in the geyer and we all waited. It first started smoking and had a little water shooting out of it- I'm not going to lie- I was a little disappointed that it was such a huge attraction for a little water shooting out of a hole with smoke. But then- all of a sudden the water shot out like a rocket and went SOO high!! It was crazy! I was definitely amazed and 'Mr. Sprinkles and Glitter' asked me what I was doing when I started clapping...for a geyser..... yeah. Haha!!
Once the geyser settled back down, we made our way into the actual park and walked around the hot springs. The smell was horrible, but it was pretty incredible to see all the natural hot springs boiling in the ground.
The smell was so bad and I never got used to it. It smelled like rotten eggs the whole time. haha! I was really surprised at how big the park was and how much there was to see. I thought it was so crazy that they had the boiling water only blocked off by tiny wooden fences that anyone could easily step over. (They must really trust us! haha!!)
The water was different shades of green and yellow because of the sulfur that was in it.
After we walked around the entire park, we got back into our cars and started the 2 hour drive to Hobbiton!! To say I was ecstatic would be an understatement, I was SO pumped to get there and see everything.

We arrived in a small town, and easily found the bus stop for the Hobbiton tours. ;) We bought our tickets for the next tour and walked around the town to kill time before our bus came.
We loaded the bus and made our way about 10 minutes to Hobbitton. Holy cow, guys! Just driving up, it looked exactly like the movies- everything was SO realistic (and so, so many sheep! I loved them and totally tried (and failed) to touch them!)
We walked around to all the houses as the guide explained to us that some of the doors didn't even open, and the ones that did- only opened about 4 feet. (All the scenes inside were shot in Hollywood).
She also told us how particular the director was for this movie and how everything had to be perfect. See this gorgeous tree?
Pretty isn't it? (Everyone was taking pictures of it and commenting on how amazing it is...)

It's FAKE!! Yup, not real. Not only that, but every leaf was wired on by hand! And if that's not enough, once they finished building it, the director felt it wasn't the right shade of green, so had them hand paint each leaf a different color!
Once we made our way through the whole tour, we ended at the Shire, where they had food and free drinks.
Everything was so green and so pretty!
 Before we headed back into town, we got to stop at the gift shop and I bought the this sign. :)
Love it! I want to find an old wooden antique frame to put it in.

Today was SUCH an amazing day! We did so much and had an absolute blast!

How long do you usually go on vacation for? 

Where has been your favorite vacation? 

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