New Zealand's Southern Island: The Ultimate Road Trip

After almost a week and a half of an epic vacation throughout Australia and the northern island of New Zealand, we set out for the southern island. Our destination? Fox Glacier. We flew from Rotorua to Queenstown. Just a quick side note - Rotorua's airport is TINY! It was such a relaxing airport experience! There was no security or anything. Craziness.

Anyway, upon landing in Queenstown, we immediately hopped in the car for a 5-ish hour road trip to Fox Glacier. This sounds boring, but it was actually quite epic. Along the way, we stopped to admire the views, gazed upon beautiful mountains and waterfalls and also stopped to see the blue pools.

The blue pools are exactly that - these amazingly-clear pools. The little hike to go see them was very nice and enjoyable, but as you get closer to the pools the bugs came out to play. My goodness were there a lot of bugs! That and there was a bridge with far too many people on it. This wasn't a crowded attraction per se, but it was quite busy considering the road to get to it had almost no one on it. Either way, it's definitely worth a pit stop.

We eventually made our way to Fox Glacier, stopping at a yarn store in Haast along the way. It was an epic road trip for sure. I highly recommend it if you ever get the chance. Just be sure to leave yourself plenty of time so you can enjoy the scenery and stop wherever you would like to!

Fun in Rotorua, New Zealand

One of my favorite stops on our trip has to be Rotorua. This town is beautiful and full of adventure! While Waitomo is kind of out by itself, Rotorua is a nice town full of activities. It isn't really a city like with sky scrapers, but there are tons of things to do. We went on some truly spectacular nature walk, zip lined through a forest and even rolled down a huge hill inside of a giant hamster ball - yes really. 

Let's start with the nature. The forests are gorgeous! There are some gorgeous lakes and walking paths where you can really take in the beautiful scenery. I highly recommend taking a look at the blue and green lakes and/or the Redwoods – Whakarewarewa Forest. It was truly breathtaking. 

Now if you're in the mood for something a bit more adventurous, I recommend OGO Rotorua and/or zip lining. In fact, they even have bundled packages called "Zip and Roll" where you can book both activities at once. 

So OGO is one of the funniest activities I've come across in my search for travel activities. You literally roll down a huge hill (they have several different tracks!) inside of an inflatable ball. You can have multiple people inside (up to 3), you can also fill it with water. Note: I would highly recommend going the water route as it helps you slide around. It was so silly and so much fun. Though you definitely fall all over each other so make sure you are comfortable with your ball-rolling partner!

Next up, was our zip lining adventure! It was pretty epic. It lasted for several hours and even included rope bridges. I had been zip lining before, but not like this! I also really liked that they incorporated some educational bits about preserving the forest. It was an amazing experience!

All in all, Rotorua was an amazing stop on our trip. Though I will say, you should be ready for a sulfur smell in parts of town. That comes from all the natural springs in the area - our hotel even had private hot tubs with each room! 

If you'd like some help booking your next adventure, visit MilesIntoMemoriesTravel.com. 

Visiting Hobbiton

If you're going to make the hike all the way to New Zealand you HAVE to visit Hobbiton. You might recognize that word from the Lord of The Rings (LOTR) series. It's the town where the hobbits live. I've read the books and seen the movies, but I'm not the biggest LOTR fan in the world, but I have to admit it was SO COOL. Admittedly, the whole thing is a bit touristy, but that's to be expected.

A Brief Backstory:
The farm where Hobbiton is built was found by a location scout flying a helicopter over New Zealand. He was looking for a hilly place near a tree and a lake when he stumbled across the perfect farm. They then negotiated with the owners to come and build a temporary set for the movies. After the movies were filmed, they tore down the set. However, when it came time to film the hobbit, they re-negotiated with the land owners for another filming stint. This time, it was agreed to build Hobbiton using permanent materials. This way, when filming concluded, the land owners could keep Hobbiton alive as a tourist attraction. I believe the guide mentioned it is the second-most visited tourist attraction in New Zealand, so clearly this was clearly a good business move. Today, thousands of tourists come through and get to experience the magic of Hobbiton!

How the Tour Works:
We decided to take the bus option to get to Hobbiton. It was about an hour drive I think from Rotorua. We arrived at a little gift shop at a certain time, boarded the bus and off we went! They played a cool behind the scenes video of filming the movie on the way there and back, so that was neat. The bus was pretty small and cramped, but it's a bus, so what can you expect?

When we arrived, they gave us the chance to use the restroom at a little check in area. I think if you drive out here, you can check in here. Next we got back on the bus and drove on to the property. It was a pretty long drive! We then followed our guide (named Luke) on a tour through Hobbiton, ending with a drink at the Green Dragon.

After the tour, you get like 5 minutes in the gift shop ( no joke!) and then it's back on the bus and back to Rotorua.

The Highlights:
Of course, seeing the Hobbit holes was amazing! Many don't really open, but this one we were allowed to take a picture inside of. It's really just a few feet deep and is very much unfinished inside - wood beams, etc.

The Green Dragon was really neat as well. You get the choice of 4 drinks at the pub, which was so fun!

We even got to see Bilbo's house! Bag End was pretty epic. 

And of course, the whole place had props everywhere. We got to see the party tree and the May pole and much more. It was honestly a really cool feeling and I'm so glad we went!