We are back on land as of today (cruise day #16) in our fourth port of call: Tauranga, New Zealand! We’ve never been to NZ before, and have been so excited about this stop!! I didn’t sleep well (maybe excitement?), but it enabled me to get these great sunrise pictures as we sailed into New Zealand and the port of Tauranga. Rae Henry, you did not exaggerate- the first thing I thought when I walked out on the balcony this morning was just how clean the air felt, like I could take such deep, satisfying breaths here.

We had a quick breakfast on board while we cleared customs, and then Rob and I headed off the ship for a nice walk around Mount Maunganui (or “The Mount” as the locals call it), which is an extinct volcano that has scenic walking paths around it and up to the summit. It is a place of historical significance to the Māori people, who call it Mauao. The Mount is an easy walk from the cruise ship docks. We took the path around the base and got some great views of Tauranga and the harbor.

The Harbor and the Mount

After our walk we headed to the meeting point to meet for our tour today! Being Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit fans, we headed to Middle Earth (Matamata) via tour bus to see Hobbiton.

NZ Scenery (Mostly) from our Bus Window

Middle Earth – The Shire* (*Took like 10 million photos here, so apologies in advance. And rest assured this IS the condensed version)

If you are not a Lord of the Rings or Hobbit series fan, you may want to scroll right past this part. We loved the books and the movies, so the opportunity to visit the actual location where Peter Jackson filmed the movies was too good to pass up. The location the scouts and Peter Jackson selected is a 1,250 acre working sheep farm in Matamata, New Zealand. It is owned and still worked by the Alexander family, who agreed to let the LOTR people film on their property. Smart move. Their farm was and is successful (with 13,000 sheep and 4,000 cows), but the added bonus of having this movie filmed there was quite the prize for their family. After the first LOTR movies were filmed there, they tore down and cleaned up all the sets when they left. The family at that time took it upon themselves to do a little walking tour for those interested in the locations where the filming had taken place, and that went verrry well.

So, when Peter Jackson and crew came back asking to film the Hobbit movies there, the family worked out a very wise business deal. They actually left the sets and entire Hobbit village, parts of the Green Dragon Inn, etc. in place, and Peter Jackson himself filmed a welcome intro to the farm and talked about what a great filming location it was. The family uses all of that today on their movie set tour, and now gets up to 2500 people per day touring in the summer. Holy cash!! Here are our photos from our wonderful day in Middle Earth, Hobbiton.

Exterior Hobbit Houses, Flowers, & The Green Dragon Inn

Interior House

The filming of the interiors of the hobbit houses was not done at the Alexander Farm film set, so they worked with the movie makers to recreate an “authentic Hobbit” interior and opened it to the public in 2023. It was pretty cute!

McLaren Falls

On the way back to the ship, our tour operator took us to a beautiful overlook, and then a quick stop at McLaren Falls. A perfect ending to a great tour!

After our tour we got back to the ship and we sailed away from Tauranga at sunset. 😍 Tonight we went to the specialty French restaurant for dinner, which was delicious. They made several of the dishes tableside. Post dinner was another game show (The Liar’s Club), and then we hit the bed to be ready for another full day in New Zealand tomorrow!

Thanks for adventuring with us!