Posts Tagged ‘New Zealand’
Trade Me: The Inside Story by Michael “MOD” O’Donnell
Trade Me is the equivalent on eBay in New Zealand. It is locally grown by a university drop-out and is one of those fabulous success stories we’ve read about. The website went live in early 1999 then kicked off by their ISP for spamming, it went forward in leaps and bounds eventually being sold to the Australian company, Fairfax Limited, for $NZ 750m about seven years later in 2006. Both eBay and Yahoo don’t get a look-in in New Zealand as Trade Me has the market covered. This book is the story of its success.
This book details how they went from nothing to a very successful company that actively helps the Police force in New Zealand prosecute and jail people committing crime using their website. They’ve helped train the Police force in ecrime and in how it’s possible to figure out where the criminal is and what they’re doing. In order to help this they keep Trade Me strictly local, you can only register and trade if you’re located in New Zealand, overseas people are just not allowed to register.
The author has done some interesting things with this book. It’s aimed at the local market only and some of language indicates it’s also aimed at the business sector. There are a number of words I don’t understand and I can only guess from the context they’re used in business, there are also a number of local phrases and words which I don’t even see in Australia despite Australia and New Zealand being so close in so many different ways. O’Donnell has put in facts and figures, if you want to see the difference between paying as a private advertiser and paying as a business advertiser the information is written in this book in clear English.
I do wonder if it’s possible to take the story of this company, and a couple of others which have also started in similar ways and gone onto achieve great things, as a template to replicate in other companies. Challenging as there are some things you can’t replicate, you can’t copy a personality and their particular way of thinking, you also can’t imitate the timing of entering the market, these seem to be the factors defining why a particular company will succeed so well and another will flop. The timing is probably a big thing, there will never be another beginning to the internet.
I bought this book in New Zealand when I was here for a holiday a couple of years ago, I’m not addicted to bookshopping, promise, we somehow found ourselves in op shops and bookshops all over the place and this is one of the treasures I brought back. I recommend reading it if you’re able to get a copy.
The Whale Rider – Witi Ihimaera
The Whale Rider by Witi Ihimaera
This timeless story tells how the courage of one girl in standing against the tide of tradition enables her tribe to become reconnected with their ancestral life force.
Since publication in 1987, The Whale Rider has become one of Witi Ihimaera’s best-loved stories, capturing readers with its universal themes of conflict between generations and genders, respect for nature, family love and personal courage.
I’m going to be very upfront about this one, I loved it both in book form and in movie form. I saw the movie first and I think that was possibly the wrong thing to do, the book has a more rounded view of things as we see events through different people’s eyes.
There are very few major differences between book and movie. The main one being the age of the girl, Paikea, in the book she rides the whale at age eight and in the movie she’s 11. The book does give more background to the whales and shows us the relationship between the whale and the original Paikea, it does help flesh things out a little, as does hearing from Paikea’s father.
The movie has Keisha Castle-Hughes in the title role and she is just stunning. Not only drop-dead gorgeous to look at but absolutely perfect in the role. I watched the documentary and many other actors said she was wonderful too. It was her first acting role, the casting director took her straight from school; she stood out. On doing a little research I was stunned to find she was in Star Wars III, guess I’ll be watching that film again to try and spot her; I wonder what makeup she’ll have.
In the documentary they show how they made the canoe, a wonderful process I’m totally in awe. I loved how they gave the canoe to the town of Whangara afterwards, a lovely present from them to the town where the movie was shot. Many of the locals were cast in this movie in the crowd scenes.
You know, so far in this article I’ve assumed you know the plot and I’ve assumed the description from the back of the book makes some sort of sense but maybe not. Paikea is a direct descendent of Paikea, the man who rode the whale from Haiwiki, their ancestral land. She is meant to be the chief but the chief can only be a male, she defies her grandfather and does all the things only men can do and then rides the whale to finally be accepted by her grandfather as the next chief. A pretty hard thing to do at any time but at the age of 11 is even harder.
I finished the movie feeling uplifted and finished the book in a similar frame of mind. I might have to read the book and watch the movie again when I’m feeling down.
Dargaville, NZ
Thursday 1st December
Checked out and had a leisurely drive to Dargaville via the Kauri Forest and ferry. The Kauris are only a small part of the forest but tend to dwarf everything else. The main tree is about 2,000 years old and going strong.
Because our drive was so leisurely we only had 40 minutes for the museum in Dargaville, we did the best we could but I strongly recommend at least an hour and a half. It is a fabulous museum and seems to be mostly people’s collections donated to the museum. One room contains a small portion of someone’s accordian collection, he has around 300 of them and this room had maybe 40 or 50. There was a Scouting Display which was worth a longer browse, it had a couple of blankets covered with badges. I could have stayed much longer looking at the handful of old typewriters they had. One room was dedicated to maritime while another large room had some fabulous information about the gum diggers. This is Kauri gum, it’s very big business in this area as are souvenirs made of Kauri wood.
Kauri Tree, 2,000 years old.
One exhibit we were able to leave to last is the masts from the Rainbow Warrior, they are erected outside and you can see them for miles. Some lovely person has donated lighting for them and they should be visible for quite some distance. It’s string lighting in the shape of the sails.
Masts from the Rainbow Warrior
There’s a lot of information on the web about the Rainbow Warrior so I won’t give you too many details. Basically it was the first ship in the Greenpeace fleet and it was sunk in a New Zealand harbour by the French Intelligence Service killing one of the activists.
Dargaville is known as the Kumara (sweet potato) capital and we couldn’t leave the area without eating some. I did consider buying the cookbook at the I-site but was talked out of as I would have to massage every single recipe to be able to eat them. The lady at the I-site tried to talk me into buying some Kumara but with only one night in town and not knowing what the cooking facilities would be like I had to decline. In the end we went to a restaurant in town and bought desert, it was interesting and I’m glad we did as it was interesting but not something I want to repeat. Kumara and Macadamia Cheesecake with Kumara Gelato is not really my cup of tea. It was served with a tiny drizzle of berry coulis which was delicious and improved things, the Kumara Gelato improved with time but I’m not sure about the cheesecake.
We stayed the night at a very interesting place, the rooms are made of old railway carriages. Ours has an ensuite, a table, two chairs, queensize bed and a miniature kitchen with a fridge, toaster and kettle. There is also a communal toilet block, kitchen and lounge room. We bought some supplies at the local supermarket two minutes away and made use of the kitchen facilities, walking back to our railway carriage we heard the unmistakable sounds of bagpipes so we followed. It turned out it was a group who rehearse once a week and get together to play on different occasions, today they were practicing their Christmas Carols and when they were altogether they marched around town playing very nicely, I wanted to applaud but they hadn’t finished when they went out of sight.
Railway Carriage in Dargaville
This is my last post dedicated to my holiday in NZ. There is still plenty more I could have said but I’m going back to the topic of this website next week, it’s books, if you hadn’t guessed. I may come back with one more as I have mentioned witch’s hats or traffic cones a couple of times.
Bay of Islands, NZ
Monday 28th November
Checked out of the motel in good time and drove towards Paihia where we’re booked in for two nights. The trip was pleasant as the temperature was warming up. We stopped to do a walk and look at the Kauri trees and a waterfall, the walk would have been rather nice if it hadn’t been for the hilly bits, the scenery was lovely and the trees were amazing.
We stopped in Wellsford for a coffee, I had the interesting experience of being faced with some lovely gluten free choices in cakes, they were actually better looking than the regular cakes, I had a lovely lemon tart. The shop was the Caffe Cozy on the corner.
We arrived in the beautiful Paihia, found our motel and then checked out the details of our cruise and the possibilities for dinner. One of the places is a Kebabs place and he was very understanding about allergies and intolerances as his wife is celiac, we plan to eat there tomorrow night, tonight’s dinner was venison upon a kumara frittata with a blueberry “chutney” (really just warmed through blueberries, went very nicely with the venison).
Tuesday 29th November
The big thing today was the cruise. It was leaving Paihia at 9:30am and we didn’t want to miss it so we ended up being there very early. It was fantabulous, we visited a large number of the islands, from just offshore and received a potted history while waiting in the cove. At one stage they received notice there really was a pod of dolphins in a good area for viewing so off we went. They also asked for volunteers who wanted to possibly go swimming with them. We were told that only strong swimmers would be allowed to swim, they have various regulations they have to abide by to have a license and so were fairly strict about it telling us we needed to be able to swim overarm and be able to swim two lengths of the public pool, if we couldn’t do those then we were not strong enough swimmers. Six people jumped into the net, they were loaned snorkels, flippers and wetsuits, if they wanted them. Everyone else watched for the dolphins and yelled instructions, we did take lots of videos and photos of our own but it was much easier for us to see the dolphins and see them we did. Some of them were enjoying themselves playing in the wake of the boat so we had plenty of time to watch them. Apparently the boat crew name some of the dolphins, one of them was called Badjelly the Witch after the children’s book of the same name by Spike Milligan and her children were also named after the children of this character.
Here is a short video I took of the dolphins.
We stopped for lunch at one of the islands, we had the choice to eat on the island or on the boat, we ate on the boat and the went ashore to have a look around see the sights. We managed to take photos of a bird nesting. The wharf on this island had Zane Grey’s name on it apparently he spent some time living on that island so he could be up and out early in the morning before anyone else. He holds the unbeatable record for marlin fishing as there’s a limit on the number of fish you can catch in one day.
The day was over far too fast but as I stop typing to look at my sunburnt arms I feel it maybe finished just about on time. It’s always best to follow the instructions on the pack and put sunblock on every two hours, also, don’t use one that’s too far out of date it just doesn’t work well.
I didn’t end up having kebabs. The guy behind the counter had a whole day to think about it and to look at the ingredients, seeing as his wife had been diagnosed with celiacs only a few months ago he was very aware of the problems. Everything he looked at had issues and then he thought about the oil things had been cooked in and decided it wasn’t worth it. He’d gone to the trouble of pulling out a clean pair of tongs specially for me.
Art Deco, Napier, NZ
Art Deco Shop Napier
A building in Napier
Another building in Napier
The Op Shop in Napier
The following morning we left Napier behind in a cloud of dust, actually in a cloud of rain as it was raining but that’s not nearly so poetic. It’s a fairly quick drive to the oderiferous town of Rotorua and we arrived in time for a late lunch having previously stopped for a walk around Hawkes Bay, buying a Crowded House CD and a bite to eat.
From south to north
Yesterday I mentioned the most southern point in NZ, Bluff, today I’m going as far north as possible on the north island and visiting Cape Reinga.
Cape Reinga is significant in Maori culture as this is where they believe the spirit leaves from to travel back home to Hawaiki. It is a beautiful place and we visited it on a very misty day. It was very clear on land but rather misty out to sea and with the haunting sounds they played at the entrance to the walk it was very easy to believe spirits were leaving right then. Basically the Maoris feel their spirits head back to their ancestral home of Hawaiki on their death and this is where they leave from.
A very haunting photo off Cape Reinga
Here’s me trying not to be blown away from Cape Reinga. You can see more of the mist in the far background looking even more eerie.
Being blown away at Cape Reinga
Ninety Mile Beach is just an amazing beach. It is a registered road and many buses have a tour including a drive along the beach, the speed limit is 100km per hour. It isn’t actually 90 miles but 90 km. I didn’t think to take a towel with me or I would have disrobed my feet and walked in the water. I took a video and if the technology works I might upload it. There’s a mistake in the voiceover, for a start it’s my voice and I don’t like my voice unless I’m chanting, then there’s a mistake in the facts but I’m not going to tell you what it is.
We stopped very briefly at Ahipara in an attempt to find a room but all we found was above our budget so we drove to Kaitaia for a night. Ahipara is the start of the Ninety Mile Beach.
Dunedin, NZ
I promise to get back to the topic of books fairly soon I won’t bore you with everything we did on our holidays.
First thing in the morning we drove to the Cadbury factory parked right outside, that would never happen in Melbourne. They still had places available on the next tour so we paid our money and wandered into their museum thingy. The first thing we saw was a big basket of roasted cacao beans and instructions on how to husk them for a taste test. Of course I had one! I was quite surprised expecting it to be really bitter but it wasn’t there was a faint trace of chocolate flavor and it didn’t taste too bad. Checked out more of the history of the Cadbury family and how chocolate came to the western world before being gathered by a very cheerful man all dressed in the regulation purple, there were 13 of us including one young boy. We had a wonderfully informative time. Started off with a short DVD, followed by everyone putting caps on and beard snoods for the men with beards. We had to surrender all cameras, mobile phones, watches and jewellery, as well as any bags, we also had to cover any earrings with our fabulously stylish hats and turn any rings in to the palms of our hands. Covering up and removing our jewellery was a safety precaution to ensure our things couldn’t fall into the chocolate. We were allowed to take a plastic bag with us, but it was given to us along with a chocolate fish. Then we got the grand tour. Every so often our guide would stop and ask questions, if we answered them correctly we were given another chocolate at random. If we asked questions we were given more chocolates at random. You can guess I was quick to both answer and ask. Both of us were given a chocolate at one point as we’d asked a question that stumped the guide. I was given some more chocolates just for helping an older lady down the stairs in the silo and she was given more chocolates for getting all the way down, there are advantages in helping others.
Loved the tour. The guide was informative and knew almost everything down to the last detail (except for the sealing up of the outer box of packs of chocolates but I’m sure he knows the answer by now, we embarrassed him thoroughly by asking about it). The amount of detailed thought that goes into the machinery is just amazing. Each machine has one job and only one job. As an illustration they have one machine that takes a stack of flat packed chocolate boxes, the stack is continuously fed by a lady, folds and glues them together before sending them onto the next machine which fills them. They’ve put some careful timing into making sure everything happens at just the right time. I am amazed at the amount of engineering that went into those machines.
I was planning on putting in a photo of the famous Cadbury purple but it won’t upload. Here’s the photo, glad it worked this time.
Cadbury Purple
Then we got back into the car and drove to Invercargill. Nothing much happened on the way there, we took photos, sometimes we even stopped the car and took them, bought petrol at the totally outrageous price of $2.06, even taking off 20% for the exchange rate they’re still paying far more than we are. A few days later we saw petrol at $2.37!
Drove into Invercargill and checked out a hotel recommended by both the Lonely Planet Guide and the pamphlet given to us by the Travel Agent. They showed us a room which was almost lovely but we didn’t find out the problems until later that night. There was no bathmat, only one bedside table and as it was a converted warehouse it echoed, I tried doing some practice that night only to be told I could be heard all the way down the end of the corridor. It was cheap, the staff were very lovely and we had the use of a communal kitchen/dining room. There were a couple of couches and a table at the other end of the corridor, you could almost call it a backpackers hostel.
When we drove in the weather was lovely but when we walked out to find food the temperature had dropped and the rain started. Can someone tell me why I didn’t walk back up the stairs and get my rain jacket? I froze…and I got wet. That was actually the worst meal of our entire trip, I won’t tell you which restaurant we ate at as I don’t recall. The other restaurants all looked good.
The next day we drove down south, as far south as we could go and still be in New Zealand…all the way to Bluff.
I was hoping to upload a photo of me showing I wasn’t lost, I couldn’t be not with all those signposts. It wasn’t to be today. Nice to see this one worked today.
I'm not lost!
Christchurch, NZ
Everyone we’ve spoken to about our holidays has been most excited and has asked for lots of details, some were in NZ and they always asked about Christchurch. I suspect they would have asked if we’d gone to Brisbane or Pakistan, or Japan or anywhere there has been a disaster of some kind. I happened to meet a man from Brisbane who considered himself lucky as he’d only suffered $17,000 worth of damage, having seen the damage in Christchurch I can’t imagine how bad it must be in some place like Fukushima or Pakistan where the disaster was that much worse. If you want details of the actual event you can visit the fairly detailed Wikipedia article.
We left the hotel at 11am and drove into the CBD, parking was easy, the meter parking cost $3.10 per hour, we put in a few dollars and walked the next couple of blocks. Hagley Park is just beautiful, I’d compare it to Fitzroy Gardens for size and beauty but it has far more trees than any park I’ve seen in Melbourne, the Avon River runs right through it, you can hire a punt and be punted through the CBD but we didn’t.
Walking into the CBD is really hard on the emotions. You can see so much damage in so many places.
This is the first thing I saw to indicate any big damage or fenced off areas. I suspect there are many people wanting to remember loved ones as 181 people died as a result of the earthquake in February 2011. There were other signs which I somehow missed seeing.
A bright memorial.
You can see all the witches hats in the background, this was just a foretaste of things to come as there were so many around NZ I could write a whole post about them.
Our first ‘destination’ was the Cashel Street Mall, once a thriving shopping centre the shops are now housed in containers. Each shop is in one or more shipping containers, most are in one but some of them have another placed on top as a second storey. Most of the ones on the bottom have the walls replaced by glass or perspex. We wandered into a couple and they felt exactly like small well set out shops. There were lots of people which you can’t see from the photo. We tried to get a coffee, one coffee house had a queue extending quite a way outside while the other wasn’t so bad but they had more seating and were just as busy , we gave up and walked away.
Cashel Street Mall Containers
This photo only shows a small number of containers, there were quite a lot. Without counting I’d suggest possibly around 50. For those who know Melbourne it probably equates to Bourke Street Mall.
From where we were in Cashel and Hereford Streets and also in Cambridge and Oxford Terraces we should have been able to see the spire of the Cathedral, this is not possible now as the spire is no longer there.
I walked around feeling more and more emotional and finding it more and more challenging, sometimes the damage was minor, as in the men’s clothing shop where we could see packets of shirts left on floor probably knocked there by the earthquake and no-one’s been inside since to pick them up, while on other occasions we could see the glass remaining from the glass door that had been totally smashed, and still other times when you can see whole shops gone.
Menswear Shop
Shattered, the way I felt walking round Christchurch
Some shops gone, others still to be demolished
We parked outside the Arts Gallery in Montreal Street after a little drive and walked up Worcester Boulevard towards the Cathedral. There is normally a tram in this street and you can see the tram lines but today you can walk on them as only the occasional car uses it. You can’t get past Cambridge Terrace, they’ve blocked it off so that’s as close as you can get to the Cathedral. The spire is gone, the rose stained glass window is gone and the red dome you see in the photo is from another building, it’s been placed there for a reason.
Christchurch Cathedral with extra dome
While speaking to the Vodafone operator that afternoon to try and get my phone working on 3G I was telling her what we’d been doing, she did ask. She hasn’t been to Christchurch since the earthquake but had a story from a friend who works here. The friend was teaching and on an excursion with her students, they’d just left the Cathedral when the quake hit, parts of the buildings were falling down around them, including the spire, avoiding injury they managed to get back on the bus and get out of the area.
We tried to go into the Art Gallery but it was closed, the shop was open and we went in. The poor man in charge answers the same questions so many times each day, he’d just finished going through the answers for someone else when my OH asked him if he knew when the Gallery would be open next. Basically, they don’t know, he said probably between July and December in 2012 but it really was anyone’s guess. I should have suggested they open a book on it and the person closest gets free entry for a year. You can see the building in the photo, it’s a very special structure, has glass walls and is very complicated to fix.
What else could this be but an Art Gallery?
There are two hotels next door which need demolishing, the Gallery can’t be looked at until those buildings are down as the Gallery is in their drop zone, they can’t just be knocked over but need to be dismantled to give the Gallery a chance to be fixed. Once those buildings are down then they can send experts in to look at the Gallery to see what repairs need to be done and figure out how it’s possible to do them. An added complication is that some of the parts were made by a company in Sweden which no longer exists. He told us they were one of the first businesses to re-open and as they lead up to the Cathedral they were finding it very hard, people were walking in looking much like I did, shell shocked. He’s had to look after these people while trying to maintain his own sanity and his job, he was very quick to offer me tissues, must have had lots of practice. Very confronting. He showed me a video they published on their blog in April 2011 to show what happened in the shop during the earthquake, here’s the link to it. Browsing through their blog I found an article about their library, being closer to the centre and not of earthquake-proof construction it received far more damage. They haven’t lost their sense of humour as this post shows I rather like point one, challenging as I often don’t wear a lot.
I can’t imagine what it must be like to live in a situation like this, to live there and have to confront the situation day after day, dealing with and helping other people to go through the same emotions. We’ve had a lot of situations like this over the last few years, Fukushima, Black Saturday, the Boxing Day Tsunami, the floods in both Pakistan and all over Australia just to name a few. I can’t imagine the courage and fortitude the inhabitants must have to face this every day.
After lunch we drove out to Diamond Harbour, via Lyttleton. It was a lovely drive, we went through the hills and drove around the bay, I took plenty of photos while driving, only some of them were of more earthquake damage. Here is a random photo I took out of the window while driving of a fence, I do apologise for my features being in the photo.
Random photo and random apologies
The scenery was beautiful, absolutely glorious. From Diamond Harbour we could see all the way out to sea, it was beautiful unlike this building a few metres from the shops.
House near the shops Diamond Harbour, NZ
Dunedin, NZ
On the way to Dunedin we had lunch at Oamaru in a lovely little park where we were menaced by a couple of ducks wanting to be fed. We didn’t give in.
This is possibly a photo of Dunedin I took from the car while we were driving. It’s not the best but it was challenging to stop. It’s a lovely town on the south east edge of the South Island as you can see from Wikipedia.
This is possibly Dunedin taken from the car.
Stopped in Dunedin at a hotel to ask if they had room, they only had one very expensive room so we left the car there and crossed the road to the Commodore Motel where we were able to book a very nice room for a reasonable price. The room had a double bed in a separate room with a single bed in the main room and they could also unlock the upstairs to create an extra bedroom to make it a family room. The kitchen was quite adequate with a microwave, kettle and toaster. They also give one hour and 100 mb free Internet which was more than enough for a Skype phone call and all our Internet stuff or it would have been had I been feeling ok and not gone to bed early.
After we’d settled in I went for a quick walk to the second hand book shop I’d seen from the first hotel. I felt as if I’d come home, it was a lovely bookshop but I had to ask about Doctor Who and Agatha Christie books as they kept them in a closed room out the back. Unfortunately, we had all the ones he had. In case you go to Dunedin it’s Galaxy Books.
We walked through the Botanic Gardens on the way to the supermarket, it was a lovely experience and we took a number of photos declining to walk over the bridge and up the hill. We saw ducks here and made our normal jokes about dinner. Saw another bookshop across from the supermarket and wandered in there, they gave me a pamphlet they’ve prepared detailing the secondhand bookshops in Otago, Fiordland and Southland. Very useful resource.
Our dinner was interrupted by some very small noises possibly coming from the plastic bag behind me. Sounding very much as if an insect was trapped there I got up to investigate. Looked inside…nothing, the noise kept going and I suddenly realized it was water dripping down from the cupboard above. Opened the cupboard and more water came out, just a trickle. The OH rang the management, I was planning on waiting until after we’d eaten. The lady came over very quickly and was suitably horrified, there was a leak in the shower upstairs, supposedly fixed. She quickly offered to move us to another room but I was exhausted and declined, she did come back with some towels and reassured us it only happened in that spot and only when the person upstairs was showering, it stopped shortly and we didn’t see it happen again.
After a modest meal we took a walk up George Street to have a go at possibly spotting the locations of the shops my ancestors used to own. As it was over 100 years ago we didn’t have very high expectations and we were right, it’s too hard to find shops in such a busy place when you have very few details.
On our return we enquired about the very old rusty and slightly odd looking bike in the garden. It was apparently made by the son of the owners. It was very clever, reminded us of the sculptures made by Bruno in Marysville. He has sculptures all over NZ and some of his work appeared in The Lord of the Rings, he was scheduled to make some things for The Hobbit as well, but died, at the too young age of 39. I didn’t take a photo of it for you and I regret that. It’s odd how we generally regret the things we didn’t do.
Queenstown, NZ
I do have a lot to write about New Zealand but today I’m writing mostly about Queenstown.
It’s a beautiful town on the edge of a lake, our hotel room looked out onto the lake and I took many photos of the mountains both with and without clouds. I’ve inserted a couple of photos of the surrounding hills. The streets are fairly steep and my calves knew it after a few minutes. It’s situated on the South Island down in the south west.
I went to NZ many years ago with some of my family. My Mum had a conference and so we did a two week tour of the islands before settling in Auckland for a week. I spent most of the two weeks asleep in the bus being woken up to see some fabulous sight only to be told ‘you missed the best views’, we got to Queenstown and they found a doctor for me who prescribed antibiotics and bed rest. My memories of Queenstown consist of a large town nestled by these big hills and antibiotics, needless to say, when everyone else was off seeing the glacier at Mt Cook I was tucked up in bed. Looking back I suggest I had low level viruses most of the year, the doctor was reluctant to remove my tonsils, I wish he had as I had them out about 10 years ago and my health has improved so much since then. We didn’t make it to Mt Cook this time but I did see it from a distance…if only I could figure out which mountain it is from the myriad of mountains in my photos.
The hills around Queenstown from our window
The hills around Queenstown from our window with fog
While we were there we found they were filming The Hobbit movies. I know this for a fact as one day we noticed a newspaper with a photo of Orlando Bloom on the front cover. He’d been spotted wandering around the shops the previous morning, it’s a big pity we didn’t do the shops until that afternoon. Missed him by that much.
It’s very possible to take tours of the areas where they filmed the Lord of the Rings movies, you can buy books and do it yourself or throw money at tour guides. If you want to see Hobbiton you need to go to Matamata on the North Island. Make sure you book with a tour guide for this one, I was told you can’t just go there by yourself.
We walked to the cemetery to take photos of the two Jewish graves there. It was such a business finding them, the hill in the cemetery seems steeper than the ones around town but we got there in the end. One of them was very sad as the boy wasn’t even four years old.
We then walked the fifty or so metres to the Kiwi and Birdlife Park and had a good wander around there. They have a lovely presentation with NZ and Australian wildlife to illustrate the damage Australian animals have done and can do. One of the birds has been trained to take money out of people’s hands and then trained to give it back again, yes, I tried this out and it worked. We managed to see a live Kiwi chase the handler out of her cage, she’s recently laid an egg and is rather protective of her environment. We shouldn’t complain about pregnancy and labour, these birds weigh about 2.5kg and the egg weighs about half a kg, it takes them several weeks to lay the egg. Saw lots of lovely NZ birds and was talked out of buying souvenirs.
I didn’t take a photo but we did see a rather amusing set of businesses. Most of it made sense but the last one was funny. From the right there was a medical centre, followed by a physiotherapy clinic next to that a pharmacy followed by Cafe 111, the punchline is that the phone number for emergency in NZ is 111.