We live in Middle Earth ...

Recently along with another 117 people who are parents of, or are actual home schoolers, we visited Hobbiton where part of The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings movies were filmed.

The actual guided tours are 2 hours long and on private farmland in the Waikato. The tours are not at all cheap but as we had so many in our group we ended up getting a great deal.
 
The girls and I arrived at the entrance (car park, ticketing office, cafe, and tourist shop) by 10am to meet up with our group. Our group was then transferred over three buses to the film spot. They had buses run about every 15-20 minutes, and were driven by a guide to and from the tour area. Our lovely guide Steve gave us what seemed like lots of information and little tidbits about the movie, site and actors. Even if you knew nothing about the movie (here's a secret we actually haven't seen any of the movies!) he really made it interesting. Nothing secret squirrel of course just some lovely stories. One of the guides that works there was actually in one of the first movies when he was a small child.
 



One of the newer buses. We had an older one called Gandalf ... yes they all have names.



  
Now despite the tour being two hours long, my two girls managed to take 265 photos between them! So forgive me for the many photos you are about to see but we three just loved the place and had the most loveliest of times.





This is the entrance to where we started our walk. Those bushes that make that hedge were actually planted there by the movie studio! There's actually a tie in the top right corner that is tethering a full-grown tree that they also planted until they are truly confident it wont fall over. This was right at the beginning so I started off on my journey not knowing what was 'real" and what was man made. It was quite astonishing and really hard to tell what wasn't authentic! 
 

 

 

 

See that tree up on the hill, the big one on the right? Well that was supposed to be the tree where Bilbo Baggins' home was under but firstly because the book is set in England it of course is an oak tree in the novel. Secondly, the movie peeps were worried popping a door, etc under it they might weaken it's root system and bring it down. Therefore they built a fake tree ... that tree to the left! The plastic leaves (made in Asia, so they are imported!) keep falling off. They have apparently replaced them once and since there were a few that had blown off, we were able to pick up a few for our memory books (and for a Hobbit Fan friend in the US).

 
 

 

All the doors in the hobbit homes are different sized. As you can see the girls would have to bend to enter but on some of the others despite my lack of height (yes I am of Hobbit proportions) I could walk inside without bending over.

 

 

They use the food they grow here in the Green Dragon Inn where they serve meals.

  

 
 

 

 
 

 
 

 

 
 

 
 

 

Loved these little chimney tops just popping up out of the hill everywhere.

  

 

Doesn't it look like real produce?

 

 

 

 

Honey anyone?

 

 

Yup, all fake!

 
 

Even the bread!

 

 

See the door is open behind? We were allowed to pop inside for a look. Sadly just part of the hill with support beams, etc.

 
 

But you could pop around and look out through the window. What a scary little Hobbit!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Fake Tree

 

 

 

 

 

Sadly Bilbo wasn't home. Bilbo's is the only place where they ask people to keep away from the door, windows, etc. I suppose they don't want to risk anything getting wrecked, or from wear and tear. They are so good about every other place that it's not an issue.

 

 

 

Here you can see the inside of this hobbit home. Not especially exciting. 

 

 
 

Looking over from the hill towards the Green Dragon and Mill. 

 

 
 

 
  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

 
 

 

Everywhere you looked there were things set up as though you were actually walking through a wee village and the villagers were going to pop out any minute.

 

 

The Cheese Shop

 

 
 

 

  
 

 
 

 
 

 
 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 
 

 
 

 
 

 

 

 
 

 

 Included in the tour is a complimentary ginger beer when you arrive at the Green Dragon. Frankly this little fat Hobbit was quite parched after walking up and down those hills so it was gratefully received. It was really quite delicious too!

 

 

 

 

 You can order food and coffee, etc from this bar.

 

 

Lots of little nooks to rest up around the place.

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They hold events at the Green Dragon ... note the lanterns for some event they had held over the weekend.

 

 
 

 

Girls were posing on the little haystacks but a spider crept out and scared our Agent Smelly who is deathly afraid of them!

 

On our way back to the bus.

 
 

 

All good things must come to an end but what a beautiful day we had.

 
 

 

Let It Go ... Let It Go ...

As some of you know recently Agent Smelly had her 10th birthday. Now we don't do birthday parties every year (cause I feel it far too much pressure frankly as I get a bit caught up in all the fun) but we do let the kids have one when they turn "double digits", amongst a couple of other "special" birthdays. 

A.S. has been planning her birthday for the past year, if not more, and the chosen theme was "mermaids" cause she just loves them. Anyway recently she has become shall we say rather "obsessed" with the movie Frozen so I had to be silly and say "geesh maybe we should be planning a 'Frozen' party". Well oh dear, did her face light up, so despite me planning for a mermaid theme I had to "let it go" and plan a Frozen one. She was jumping for joy when I agreed to it. Thankfully nearly all of the stuff I had bought to-date was suitable for both ... gotta love blue, so it wasn't too bad a change.

So I thought I'd share our little Frozen party with you. Twas the night before Frozen ... and mama had set the table in readiness...

Those little sparkles across the table are tiny little blue gems that sparkle like frozen ice.

 

 

Two bottles of lemonade and a bottle of blue energy drink and some ice and the drink fountain looked awesome. Kids were slightly hyper but once it was finished

they got water or juice so it worked out OK.  

Found me some blue jelly beans; the kids (and adults) were in raptures!

 

Best thing ever ... everyone had a named bottle and no-one was

looking for their bottle or reusing and wasting lots of cups.

 

The first cake I have "properly" iced. Hastily made at 7am the day of the party!

Later a dear friend told me you are supposed to use this icing about 3 days

before eating so it has time to harden and set ... oops, hahaha

 

And the star of the show. Many of the guests came in theme ... oh so cute!

 

 

 

Agent Smelly just loved her Frozen birthday ... we had Olaf noses (carrots), sandwiches (we finish each others), and the general party fair. I put all the cupcakes out naked and that mess you can see on the bench behind is a decorating station where each child went crazy decorating their cupcakes however they wanted.

 

By the way does anyone want a mermaid cake tin ... hehe

 

First Aid

During the school holidays the girls had the opportunity to attend a St John's First Aid course. As it was the day before some party prep I had going on, they went with their lovely Guide leader and her daughter.

Both girls really enjoyed the course. They have told me loads and loads of things that they learnt and better yet remembered!

They learnt how to give mouth to mouth on a dummy and at one stage they had to practice making an emergency call on a phone.

Apparently The Fashionista reported to the person on the phone (her partner and BFF, who happens also to be the Guide Leader's daughter) that her mother (me!) had finally been driven to trying to kill her dad so an ambulance had better come quickly. Her partner in turn, reported to her, that the ambulance needed to come as her mother had jumped off a cliff due to the high stress she was under. Apparently the girls were in hysterical laughter over their calls to each other ... goodness knows what the lady taking the course thought of the pair of them. Those two are hysterically funny when they get together and Mrs E was amused on the way home in the car, to hear the pair of them discussing their colour scheme, etc for when they went flatting together when they were old enough.

It is so empowering for children to know what to do in a medical emergency, even if, hopefully the need never arises for them to put into use what they know. I'd really recommend getting along to one of these courses, at only $20 a head it was well worth it.

Hands on Chemistry

During the school holidays I attended one of Nathalie Thomas' (Science for Home Educators) Chemistry courses at Wintec (Waikato Institute of Technology). We did 80% of the experiments that you do in years 9 and 10 if you went to school.

On the first day we learnt about laboratory rules and more specifically how to use a Bunsen burner correctly. We had to wear laboratory coats and goggles at all times and completed some experiments in pairs using the Bunsen burner. We also learnt the correct names for lots of other items you use in a lab.

The next day we observed a chemical reaction by burning Mercury metal which made a really bright flash which stayed for about a minute and then turned to ash.  That was fun! Another few experiments was making and testing for Hydrogen, Oxygen and Carbon Dioxide.

We also had the challenge to separate sawdust, sand and salt from each other. We had five different processes we could choose to complete this and it was left to us to decide how to do it. My partner and I decanted to get the sawdust, then we filtered the salt from the sand and finally evaporated the saltwater.  

 

Another test we did was where you blew through a straw into lime water and the oxygen turns it cloudy. Nathalie joked that this test proved you weren't an alien if it went cloudy. My water went cloudy so this proved I am not an alien, although my parents are still not entirely convinced. I even had my mum take a picture to prove to my dad who likes to joke I am an alien ... Dads!

Our final tasks covered the pH table and we did some Acid-Based tests. We used a lot of chemicals we wouldn't have at home.  

I really enjoyed the course. Nathalie is a really good teacher and so friendly and cheerful. She makes science so easy to understand and you can tell she likes science which makes you like it too. I learnt a lot and the fact that we could do all the experiments ourselves instead of just watching was pretty awesome.
 

I just love getting a certificate at the end too!

Hana