Kiwi is Not a Fruit

This is a kiwi.

It is the national bird of New Zealand! It's also the only place in the world you can find this bird. Hence why they call New Zealanders kiwis. But all of this gets rather confusing. Is it a fruit, a bird, or a person? Yeah I'm still not sure either..

Anyway! I spent four days in the beautiful country of New Zealand with my best friend in the world. But four days definitely was not long enough. It is hands down the most beautiful country I have ever seen in my life. I had never been so mesmerized by hills before. I would just took out the window and be astounded. Seriously though. Look at this.

And I took that picture from the inside of a moving car. It's breathtaking!

While in New Zealand, I stayed in Auckland and then traveled to Mount Eden, Matamata (aka Hobbiton), Rotorua, and Waiheke Island. It was a busy trip! 

Mount Eden was gorgeous. It was just a random little mountain in the middle of Auckland and from the top you could see everything. There was a huge crater that was gated off and a running trail that surrounded it. I couldn't believe that this was people's morning run. Maybe I'd run more if this was my view!

(New Zealand has tons of mountains and volcanoes because they are on the fault line. One of their islands is only 600 years old!)

Buttttt, I know what y'all all have really been waiting for.. 

The next day I drove out to Matamata. And when I say that I drove, I mean I sat in the passenger seat and held on for dear life while Collin drove of the left side of the road for the first time. Props to him for not killing me though. Anyway, so we made the long drive out to Matamata, which also goes by the name Hobbiton. It is where the movies The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings were shot.

Now let me preface with how big of nerds all my brothers are. HUGE. They read all the books and watched the movies the second they came out. Me? Not so much. I was still pretty young when the first movie came out and I spent the entire movie crying in my mother's lap because Gollum scared me so bad. But really Mom? That guy was scary. Anyway, so even though I'm not a huge fan..to say the least..possibly scarred for life..again thanks Mom..but I went and did a movie set tour. Mostly because I knew that if I got all the way to New Zealand and did not go see this, my family would possibly disown me. 

The set directors of The Hobbit decided to keep the set up and turn it into a tourist location rather than tear it down each time they filmed. So while we were in the same location where Lord of the Rings was shot, there was nothing left from those films. However, The Hobbit is still being filmed on location. 

So I found myself in the middle of a world that made me have nightmares for months, but it was absolutely beautiful. Even though it rained and was freezing (I'm noticing a theme with this side of the world and the rain..), I had such a great time. I went into hobbit holes, drank cider brewed from the Green Dragon Pub, and stood on the same ground as Orlando Bloom. That's got to count for something..am I right ladies??

It was really interesting to learn about how they shot the films to make Frodo so small and Gandalf so large. Did you know that they filmed each scene individually and then pasted them together? So you think they're standing together, acting out a scene, but in real life they were talking to themselves! That makes me appreciate acting more. It's one thing if you're pretending to be sad or happy with the other person. But to pretend to be happy or sad with a person who isn't sitting next to you, but will be edited in? That's crazy.

If you notice though, there is nothing on the inside of these hobbit holes. All filming for the inside was shot in a studio, so the actors only spent about five weeks in Matamata for the last Hobbit film. Everything else is a replica back home. But spending five weeks here wouldn't be the worst thing in the world, which is why a lot of the actors brought their families.
Trivia fact, most of the kids in The Hobbit are the actors real kiddos. You're welcome.

It was such a great experience. Who knows? Maybe I'll go home and be over my fear of the Lord of the Rings now.. But I may not chance it.

More on Rotorua and Waiheke Island to come, but for now, it's more lesson planning. Only a few days left of my internship. I've got to make the most of it!