Hobbiton is not on my bucket list

That's right, I've already made the sacred pilgrimage to the holy hobbit lands of New Zealand.  You may or may not have realized that Hobbiton is a real place, located on the north island of New Zealand, not far from Auckland.

BabyBat and I went there a little over a year ago, but at the time we had to sign NDAs that prohibited us from posting the images online.  That NDA has since been lifted.  So here we are!

Bag End's famous door

New Zealand, in general, is one of the world's Great Awesome Places and its vistas are truly middle-earthian.  The South Island has some of the most dramatic scenery known to man - and I don't say this lightly, as I've resided on four different continents and traveled to over two dozen countries.

No picture can truly do such places justice - especially when taken by a novice like me - so I'll stick to posting about the North Island for now.

Here are some more pics I took while touring the ancient hobbit grounds... click to enlarge.

This is Mt Taranaki - a volcano that rises from sea level to a snowcap on the North Island of New Zealand.  I didn't take this picture - I couldn't take one this good while I was there because I didn't get lucky enough to have a clear sky which only happens like one day each week.

photo credit: Light Knight via photopin cc

And, of course, I did take the requisite picture of New Zealand's most populous (and tastiest) inhabitant.

Incidentally - I did see the new Hobbit movie this last weekend, and it is of course stupendously awesome.  If you're into that sort of thing.  Very relaxed flow and very immersive - not a drop dead sprint like most movies these days.  And yet it kept moving and didn't leave me bored at all.  Peter Jackson is simply brilliant.