Honeymoon: Auckland, New Zealand

Travel Dates: December 4, 2012 to December 6, 2012

It is always raining in Auckland. It's like there's a giant rain cloud over the entire city, even in the summer, souring the weather and the moods of the rushy population with it. Seriously, we passed through this city 4 times along our trip, and it was raining every damn time. Auckland has got to be my least favorite New Zealand city. It's like a down-south version of the Silicon Valley in terms of bumper-to-bumper traffic, rude commuters, less-than-stellar customer service, and dismal RAIN to top it off. We passed by the not-too-impressive silhouette of Sky Tower against the sky line.

You can take a guided tour on the outside of Sky Tower's top rim with safety ropes and even skydive off its highest point

No food joints within walking distance of our hotel in Auckland, but a short drive led us to a downtown area with lots of restaurants. The painful part was parking and merging on the main street to get back to our hotel with the constant, oncoming cars.

Had this hand-made pizza baked in a brick oven

Tung's spaghetti

An hour's drive north of Auckland is Warkworth, home of Sheep World. They offer two showings of sheep-shearing/herd dogs a day, and you can freely browse the farm and eco-discovery trail on the vast land.

Sheep dyed pink in front of Sheep World

Tung with the wooden, Lego-like sheep

Interesting facts around the discovery center of Sheep World

Holy sheep! Never knew there were so many varieties.

Spectrum of sheep

Black sheep! Reminds me of my English-major self in my more math/science-oriented family.

The sheep-herding dogs, Coco (top) and Jess (bottom) rest between demos. Jess is a purebred, New-Zealand native sheep dog worth $5,000 NZD. Why do the sheep shearers pay so much for her? Because on her own, she could herd 300 sheep to their pens quickly so they could be sheared. Over a brief time, she more than earns her worth compared to hiring humans to do the round-up.

When the dogs are chained up, it's their cue to relax in between the hard work of running in the field and herding sheep. New Zealand law declares that a dog found on private property who is harassing farm animals can be legally shot by the land owner. Since their herding drive is so strong, chaining up the dogs when their owners cannot watch over them could also save their lives.

Our demonstrator, Rob, educates us on his sheep dogs. The shearers spend an enormous amount of time training their dogs each day. Instead of commands like, "Go left" or "Go right," each dog is taught a unique command with those intended meanings. For Jess, "Please" means "Go left," and "Thank you" means, "Go right." This is so the handlers could have 3-5 dogs in the field at once, herding an enormous amount of sheep, with each dog responding to his or her unique command so as not to be confusing. The sight and herd dogs work together, controlling the front and back of the flocks, nipping and barking to communicate with the sheep as to where to go. The handlers would also use different whistle tones to effectively drive the flocks.

Here comes the flock, after Jess successfully rounds them up. Being a young dog susceptible to ADD, she managed to chase around some geese before getting back down to business.

The sheep are marked by colors on their foreheads to give tourists a clear visual of how they are sorted. In reality, they are identified by the nocks on their ears, similar to branding on cows. They are led to individual pens based on gender, age, which farm they belong to, etc.

An audience member is recruited to sort the sheep into different pens based on their head color as the dogs drive them in. I could see why it would be a challenge since there's a stampede-like rush as the sheep are herded.

Next, Rob demonstrates how to shear a rather wooly sheep. Moccasins must be worn since the sharp shearing equipment cannot penetrate the tough skin.

Once a sheep gets on its back, it cannot get up without assistance (like a turtle!). Shearers use pressure points to help the sheep relax and stretch the skin taught during the shearing process so the animal comes out with minimal scratches. A sheep shearer who nicks too many sheep can lose his job if farmers complain or keep requesting other shearers to do the job.

All done! One naked sheep.

Next is everyone's favorite part: time to feed the lambs! We each get a bottle of milk as the lambs are let out of their pen and eagerly run to find something on which to suckle. They sure went to town on that milk.

Lamb coddling. Of course, the black sheep runs to me.

After the sheep show, we leisurely browsed the farm to see all the cute, cuddly animals.

Black bunny wabbit

Tung and the Alpacas. These guys can live 20 years or more, and they love cats! They will follow cats around.

Petting a ram with a flock of ducks following me around. They must think I have food, but I'm just holding a souvenir ball of wool from the sheep shearing demo.

D'aaawwww! Too cute.

Bristly-furred hawgs

Miniature pony

Goat getting his horns stuck between the fence after curiously investigating me

Emu: Ostrich-like birds

Doh! A deer. A female deer!

Enjoying the Eco-Discovery Trail

We followed up with lunch at the Sheep World cafe after our farm-life excursion. New Zealand has the yummiest ice cream! A favorite beverage is ginger beer--non-alcoholic, like root beer. I'm not a fan of ginger, but there's something refreshing about this sweet, effervescent soft drink.

For our last few days in Auckland, we toured Sylvia Park, one of the major malls in the city. The central plaza was decked out for Christmas. Annoying side note: Parking lots surround the circular mall, and the quickest way to get to each lot/garage is to cut through the center of the mall. However, when it's closing time, the central mall gates get closed, barring access as-the-crow-flies. You therefore would have to go around the outside of the mall, sometimes trekking where there is no sidewalk, to get to where you originally parked. It would be wise to bring an umbrella or raincoat as it ALWAYS rains in Auckland!

Christmas elves hung on Sylvia Park's ceiling

We dropped by this chocolate shop in the mall, attracted by very colorful chocolates filled with creamy, intense, fruity flavors. The girl who worked there was fascinated that we were from America and was more than perplexed as to why we chose "ordinary" New Zealand for our honeymoon destination. She talked a mile a minute to find out what we found to be new and strange about her country and was aghast that we had never heard of the feijoa fruit. She even offered to bring us some from her garden, had we stayed longer. There goes another chance to try a new tropical fruit.

Last dinner at Wagamama, a restaurant in Sylvia Park dishing up yakisoba and other Japanese-influenced noodle dishes.

"Wagamama" in Maori means "Unruly Child"

Last breakfast at a French pastry shop in Downtown Auckland. We thought we'd end with more butter to go full-circle in our trip.

Auckland Takeaways:

• Rain.
• Roundabouts everywhere. Driving in the city was more challenging because of the (what we think is) more complex layout of roundabouts. The killer part was figuring which lane to enter when getting into a roundabout so that you don't miss your exit. I never thought I'd miss a traffic light til now.
• New Zealand has 40 million sheep, more than any country except for Australia. There are 11 sheep for every person in New Zealand.
• Shearing sheep could save their lives. They get sheered not only so their wool could be exported, but it keeps them from developing Blow Flies that would kill them from infection and disease.
• At Sheep World, an annual contest is held for who can shear sheep the fastest in a given amount of time. A teenage girl has been the winner for many years straight, and the local boys are dropping out of the competition because they are tired of being shown up by her! 
• Since sheep could easily learn a routine, to keep the show "fresh" and real, shearers at Sheep World would offer to sheer sheep off other farms. 
• As you drive along the main highways, you will see signs and billboards advertising chiropractic clinics. Why is this such a big thing? Because sheep shearing is a major profession, and it's very hard on the back to drag heavy sheep, stoop down, hold it in position, and spending the day shearing.
• Rugby has a huge fan base in New Zealand. Before international games, the NZ team would perform a ritual called "haka," a Maori traditional war cry/dance to intimidate the competition.
• The New Zealand kiwi is a hard-to-spot nocturnal bird, but there are reserves where you can go and camp out under the direction of a tour guide for kiwi sightings.
• Feijoa: New Zealand-native fruit that we had not heard of before this trip. Used to make vodka and confections.
• If you arrive on Air New Zealand, you will get the chance to view a safety video done in the manner of Lord of the Rings, complete with elves, wizards, and dwarves as actors, showing you how to properly put on your seat belt and how to respond in case of emergencies.

Honeymoon: Hamilton, New Zealand

Travel Dates: December 2, 2012 to December 4, 2012

We were very happy to find a Thai restaurant and return to Asian food after 10 days of rich French creams and sauces. During our stay in Downtown Hamilton, we frequented the joint for some hot noodle soup to soothe the soul.

We also had breakfast at a lovely little cafe that serves great hot chocolate.

Hamilton was all decked out and ready to celebrate a warm Christmas. Unfortunately, this was where Tung punched out for a 24-hour battle with fever and chills as food poisoning from French Polynesia finally got the better of him. Luckily, we were within walking distance of a nearby walk-in clinic. After duking it out for a day and a half, Tung was ready to hit the road again.

Why? He couldn't possibly stand to miss Hobbiton in Matamata, the whole point of us going to New Zealand in the first place, before we had to drive back north to Auckland. After an unreliable GPS moment and flagging down a postal worker to help us find the way, we made it at last.

Carved stone depicting Frodo and Sam climbing uphill

Hobbiton was built on an actual farm, a 1,250-acre estate belonging to the Alexander family, who still live and farm there today. We got to see cows being herded to the pasture for grazing as we arrived for one of the earliest tours in the day.

300 cattle on the Alexander Farm

13,000 sheep on the Alexander Farm, all sheared by the Alexander brothers every 8 months. Here, the woolies graze in an enclosed pasture.

The azures and turquoises of French Polynesia gave way to the emerald- and apple-greens of a New Zealand countryside, and I am still in awe at the rich spectrum that nature gifts us. Hobbiton as a movie set was most impressive--real props and rustic, gravel-lined roads transport you to another age and time as you set foot in this quaint little town. With all its natural beauty, it definitely beats the more facade-like environment at Universal Studios.

This was the very first hobbit house that we saw on the tour. There are 44 unique hobbit holes! At the time of the filming of The Lord of the Rings, catering had to be brought in for 400 cast and crew, three 2-course meals a day.

This is the house of Samwise Gamgee, Frodo Baggins's faithful sidekick. Sam was Frodo's gardener in Hobbiton, so his house is carefully manicured with English-native flora.

I am about a fitting size for a hobbit hole! Highly considering Tung's suggestion to move to New Zealand...

Though most of the hobbit holes have non-opening doors and are built just to be filmed from the outside, there was one that we could enter.

The interior was shallow with a simple dirt floor, but it was fun to duck your head walking in (well, I didn't need to) and peek out of the window from the inside.

Coveted rolling green hills for Peter Jackson's set

View of the glassy lake, perfect reflections on an overcast morning

At Bag End stood the house of Bilbo and Frodo Baggins with the green door. A perfect fit for a hobbit, though Gandalf the Grey had to duck and bumble his way around.

Peter Jackson set a few requirements when he was looking for the perfect area on which to build Hobbiton: there must be rolling, green hills in an area unobstructed by power lines, with a large tree near a glassy lake. Hobbiton is actually built on a bog, taking nine months of construction, but the result is an eternally green land even in the driest New Zealand summers.

View of the Party Tree, a huge pine, sitting near the glassy lake

The oak tree sitting on top of Bag End was chopped down from a different location, numbered branch-by-branch, brought in to Hobbiton, and reconstructed. The leaves, imported from Taiwan, were then wired onto the tree. Way to do things the easy way, Peter.

Hobbiton closed for a time before we arrived so that The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey could be filmed. Here is the fence that a young Bilbo Baggins hopped over as he was running late to a meeting at the beginning of the movie.

Hobbits keep bee hives to harvest honey, much like Winnie the Pooh

Heading to the Green Dragon Inn for some "elevensies" refreshments

Though the interior of the Green Dragon inn was mostly filmed in Wellington, New Zealand, it was faithfully reconstructed at the Hobbiton movie set. We got to go inside and enjoy a cup of ale on the house. The Green Dragon is where residents of Hobbiton gather to have a drink and catch up on the latest hobbit happenings.

The stone bridge leading to the Green Dragon Inn

The mill near the Green Dragon

The inside of the Green Dragon was nice and cool, offering a break from the muggy weather outside. Wood beams and furniture and a stone floor provide a rustic ambiance.

The largest trout ever caught in the Shire was nary the size of a small salmon, but probably on the scale of a shark to the tiny hobbits

One last view of the peaceful Shire before we headed off to our next destination!

Kia Ora (welcome) to Waitomo, home of the more commercialized, touristy glowworm caves.

The elaborate ticket booth in front of Waitomo Cave

Waitomo tiki pole

You could opt for a full cave-tour experience by hitting three caves, both on foot and on more adventurous line-drop and tubing excursions. Being lazy tourists, we opted to be shuffled around on a 2-minute boat ride to see the glowworms. Not a highlight of our trip, but worth seeing a phenomenon such as bio-luminescence at least once in our lives.

It was admittedly interesting to see the limestone formations inside Waitomo and to stand amidst strangers in "The Cathedral" chamber. We sang "Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer" in the spirit of the upcoming Christmas and heard our voices bounce off the acoustically-perfect cave walls. Many famous singers have come to offer their voices in The Cathedral and attested to its magnificence.

Watching pinpricks of blue stars that were the glowworms come out on the cave ceiling as your eyes adjusted to the dark was also fun (Tung took a power nap on the boat). Seeing the glowworms' feed lines literally glow to attract insects on which they fed was like seeing fine, vertical strands of spiderwebs dipped in light.

Taking a bushwalk after the Waitomo tour

Rock formations outside Waitomo. Snapped this shot real quick before having to run to the car as it started to rain.

Hamilton Takeaways:

• Medical care in New Zealand is pretty affordable compared to the States. We had to pay out of pocket to treat Tung's food poisoning and saved our receipts for reimbursements. The prescription antibiotics that he was put on only cost $3 NZD.
• Fun Fact: Peter Jackson, a New Zealand native, actually "auditioned" sheep to be in The Lord of the Rings. Most New Zealand sheep were ruled out as he was looking for English-native sheep with black feet and a black face. As a result, English sheep (and an American bald eagle) had to be imported onto the set for filming despite the 13,000 existing wooly residents on Alexander Farm.
• Though the exterior Hobbiton scenes were shot in Matamata, interior scenes, such as the inside of Bilbo's house, were shot in Wellington.
• If you could at all manage to, spelunking on your own is a better way to view glowworms instead of heading to the more touristy Waitomo Cave. It's a better place for cave exploration/adventure tours, but not the greatest way to view glowworms.  Pack a couple of good flashlights, some water shoes, and clothes that you don't mind getting wet if you want to do self-spelunking.
• Pictures are not allowed inside Waitomo Cave, just because they would rather sell a green-screen image to you. 
• If you do go and decide to JUST visit Waitomo and not the other caves (Raukuri and Aranui), drive a ways from the first entrance you see, as individual tickets could only be purchased in front of Waitomo Cave despite all the other elaborate, similar ticket booths you pass along the way.