Hobbiton

Last week we went to Hobbiton. It is the set where The Lord of The Rings and The Hobbit were filmed. We have lots of pictures. Here are a few:

here is a picture of a Hobbit Hole.

 

Day 21

Last week we drove to the Coromandel Peninsula and went to Hot Water Beach. Its a place written about in all the guidebooks and it was kind of crowded.  We brought a shovel because if you dig really deep, you find water the temperature of a hot tub! We actually were successful but we had to dig really deep.  

here are some photos.

here are some of us digging a hole.

 The next day we went to a place called Cathedral Cove. It was about a 20 minute hike to get to the beach but it was worth it. It had big waves and huge rocks scattered along the coastline and a tunnel through the mountain. Here are more pictures from Cathedral Cove... 

Day 16

Last week we went to Murwai Beach.It is known as the black sand beach and is about an hour and a half north of where we are staying. I noticed it had BIG WAVES!!! The sand actually is black!

Here we are getting ready to boogie board

We saw a jellyfish on the beach!

Some gannets on the rocks

We rented boogie boards and surfed a lot with them. We had to stay between flags because that's where the lifeguard patrols and there is a strong current. Murwai Beach is home to a colony of Gannets. The Gannets look a lot like seagulls.The mom lays one egg and when the baby hatches, it practices flapping its wings in the nest. On its first flight, it goes all the way to Australia! In two to  six years, it returns to the exact same spot.

Day 11

Here we are at North Head.

We have been spending time with a family that moved here from lake oswego.their kids are  Jack (12) And Keelan(15). We went to a beach near their house.It had a rope swing!!!

On Saturday, we went to a town called Devonport. We took two ferries to get there. We tried fish and chips which is a popular meal in New Zealand.

I went to a park called North Head. It's a World War One and Two military site where they have secret underground tunnels and disappearing guns. They are called disappearing because they could be hidden from approaching enemies. North Head overlooks the harbor and the Hauraki Gulf  and sits up really high above the water. This made it a good place to see what was happening in the water down below.

here are two more pictures of  North Head.

Day 5

Today we swam on St. Heliers Beach, which faces Rangitoto Island.There is a volcano on the island that erupted 600 years ago .It is the largest and youngest of about 50 volcanoes in the Auckland area. Scientists think it will never erupt again.
Don't worry because there weren't any sharks in the water where I went swimming. )On the beach, I gathered a total of 410 shells! Afterward, we went out into the town.
 (I cannot wait until after dinner! I know, I know BECAUSSSSSSSSSE? well, its because we are having Hokey pokey ice cream!). Today was a mild day and that is pretty much it!                                    

Here is a photo of St. Heliers Beach. Rangitoto Island is in the background.

Day 4

Here we are at the Sky Tower:

    
Sorry I couldn't blog yesterday. There was a lot going on. We went to the Sky Tower downtown and took the ferry to get there. We walked the rest of the way. I bought a stuffed sheep because there are 4,000,000 people in New Zealand and 60,000,000 sheep. Today wasn't very exciting, unless you count making a game exciting.The game was called Catapults and Castles! Basically,one person builds a castle using banana grams, and the other person tries to knock it down by flicking banana grams at it.Today our homeschooling started. Oh, by the way, there is a new flavor of ice cream here. It is called Hokey Pokey ice cream. I had some, and it tasted so good! We have it in our freezer. Well, that's pretty much it for day four. Anyway, I hope you are enjoying my blog!

Here I am on the ferry back from Auckland:

Day 2

the pictures are finally here.

 

here is a picture of me climbing a tree:

 

 

 here is one of the beach:

here is one of our house:

  





here is  a picture of me jumping off a hill: