Kiwi Paradise : Zorbing with Hobbits

So Saturday we woke up bright and early. We were off by 8 to a farmer’s market that was nearby. It’s pretty similar to an American farmer’s market just the food was a little different. There was also a lot of Bob Marley stuff but I think that was more because of the music festival than anything else. I got to try my first Maori fry bread fresh from the fryer. Super yum! They have this stuff called golden syrup here that is a lot like molasses, honey, and syrup all put into one. It is sweet but not overly sweet and really good. We only stayed for about an hour because it was pretty small but fun.

Next came a unique experience. Remember that pet hamster that you had growing up? Remember that hamster ball you used to put your hamster in and then kick it around the room (don’t act like you didn’t do that!) Well, I can now say that I know exactly how said hamster felt. Allow me to introduce you to something Kiwi’s call Zorbing. Picture this: a giant plastic (soft plastic) ball with a smaller ball inside and two people inside the smaller ball rolling down a large hill. Sounds awesome right? Well, I can now say I’ve done that and not just once but twice! Because we had a group of 10 people we got a deal of 2 rides and photos/video footage for $70 (one ride alone without purchasing photos was $40). The smaller ball has some water sloshing around in it so that as you roll down the hill you mostly just slide around inside the ball instead of spin around.

Once we had gotten our fill of adventure we then made our way over to the land of middle earth. Matamata, New Zealand is the home of a shorter bunch of folks with hairy feet. We got a deal with that as well because in times past the tour of Hobbiton was only about 30 minutes long but now since the Hobbit movie came out the tour is over 2 hours. Before our tour left we stopped by to get some lunch. James took us to a burger place that had THE biggest burger I've ever seen. Sara and I split one it was that big. Ingredients: pineapple, a fried egg, beet root, hamburger patty mushrooms, a piece of fish, ham, lettuce, tomato, steak, bacon, and cheese. Definitely enough to fill us up on our way into Hobbiton.

Our tour was really cool! We saw every hobbit dwelling in existence and then some. The giant tree that Bilbo stands under during his speech was pretty neat (it is a live tree) and Bagend was fun to see but I think my favorite part was when we stopped to have a drink at the Green Dragon. During the whole tour we had a guide that took us around and told us facts behind the filming of all of the movies. By the end everyone had decided that living in a hobbit hole really would be awesome. Especially there because the countryside was so beautiful! It's right in the middle of a sheep farm but hey whatever works right?

Just in case the day couldn’t get any better we of course had to stop by an ice cream shop on the way home. Now this isn’t just an old ice cream shop. This one has an option to get not just 1 or 2 scoops but 12! The cone is even double sided (check out the picture)!! I thought that 12 scoops might be a little much so I just stuck to a few scoops instead and boy was it delicious!

We got home absolutely exhausted but it was totally awesome! Another great day here in paradise!