Sam's Climbing Blog: "A wizard is never too late, Frodo Baggins. Nor is he too early. He arrives precisely when he means to."

Sorry folks, the late night horrorshow has been cancelled thanks to the good cares of my mother and a few visits to the bank. After spending 3 full days in Waipu my visa was fully operational again and I couldn't be quick to move my ass out of Waipuuuu. My first visit would be the Hobbiton filmset near Matamata. After driving at least 300km and stopping like every 40-50km, like 10 times, to still my car's thirst, I arrived pretty much in the middle of nowhere again. Hobbiton itself is situated on a gigantic piece of dry hilly grassland where the owners keep at least 13.000 sheep.You can't go in there by yourself, but have to buy a tour ticket with a guide. Pretty (too) expensive, but it's one of the main tourist attractions, so that's what one can expect. But after the tour, I can only say it was very nice and well worth visiting. They even have 13 fulltime gardeners who take care of the gardens, growing flowers, vegetables and fruit trees. In the end I learned 4 things: 1) You can earn as much as 12.000 dollars to say "Proudfeet!" at Bilbo's birthday; 2) They made a no fly-zone above the property to avoid espionage, and if you did, you could lose your pilotlicense for life; 3) Peter Jackson put up his own brewery to create a 1% beer to drink at the party scens; 4) Some Hobbitdoors are small, so Gandalf looks big, and some are tall, so Hobbits look small next to them, another filming trick. And not to forgot, use loads of sunprotector. After only walking 2 hours in the sun, mister whiteskin here got completely burnt in the face. That's because the ozonlayer above Naw Zealand is almost nonexistent, so that's like running around in a clownsuit in the frontline of the Vietnamwar, or SSS (=solar suicidal stupidness). Here are some pictures out of dozens and shot in vivid colour modus for crazy green grass and blue sky.