Matamata - Hobbiton

When I travel 'across the hill' (the Kaimai ranges) to Hamilton I go through the small country town of Matamata which is nestled near the hills, just 40 minutes from Tauranga.

It is a small town, pop about 6,000, with a wide main street with beautiful manicured gardens along the middle of the road. The town is surrounded by lush green farmland, and is a dairying area with also several racing thorough bred horse stud farms.

But Matamata's recent claim to fame is its link to the "Lord of the Rings' trilogy. Tucked away on a quiet dairy farm, the film set for the Hobbiton village was made and the filming took place over a period of time there.

Nowadays there is not much that remains of the film set, just a few 'hobbit holes' in the hillside, and the shell of the houses in the earth. See here and here for further information.

I generally stop for a coffee at one of the many cafes and sit and watch the tourists wandering around the town. Gollum is frequently photographed as well as the Information centre with its grass roof and hobbitlike decor.

ANZAC Day....Eric Bogle - The Band Played Waltzing Matilda

This song is an Australian compostion, but it pertains to New Zealanders as well. The 'A' in ANZAC of course refers to the Australian Army Corps.

I have written several posts about ANZAC Day and its meaning to the people of New Zealand. Please visit here and here.

On a more personal note here and here .

We rose at 5am this morning and attended the dawn parade, at the cenotaph right beside Mount Maunganui beach. It was a perfect morning, a beautiful calm dawn as the sun rose over the surf and the Harvard planes flew overhead in formation.

The World War Two veterans are now aged and fewer are able to march in the parade each year, there are still many Vietnam, Korean, and veterans from other wars, but the attendance by the members of the general public was greater than any other year. Many young people and children had, like us, risen before daylight and made the pilgrimage to the ceremony at the cenotaph before dawn.

CORRECTION - I have just looked again at the first frame in the video where it says that 50,00 Australian troops died at Gallipoli. That is not correct.

Here are some more figures closer to the truth:

There were about 7,594 - 8,700 Australian soldiers killed at Gallipoli. An estimated total of 664 Australian officers and 17,260 men were wounded. In all 61,522 Australians lost their lives in the First World War.

A total of 18,500 New Zealanders died in or because of the World War One, and nearly 50,000 more were wounded. Of the total number who died, over 2700 died at Gallipoli, and 12,500 died on the Western Front.

The total population of New Zealand in 1914 was just over one million.

In the history of the Great War, the Gallipoli campaign made no large mark. The number of dead, although horrific, pales in comparison with the number that died in France and Belgium during the war. But for New Zealand, along with Australia and Turkey, the Gallipoli campaign played an important part in fostering a sense of national identity.

Perth Australia

On the Caves Road in the Margaret River region we drove through this magnificent forest, I think they are Jarrah trees.



The perth city outline across the Swan River









The view taken from our balcony - the gum tree did block the Red Bull course a little but you can see the markers in the river.



Is there really such a thing as a 'motor bike' frog. I believe so!



We have just returned from a trip to Perth Australia to visit family. While there we were able to watch the Red Bull Air race from a wonderful vantage point - the balcony of our apartment in South Perth which had an amazing view of the city and the Swan river.

We also did a three day trip south to the Margaret River region, a beautiful area of wineries, forests, caves, and rugged coastline.

Blogging is taking second place......

I seem to be spending less time at the computer these days. Not sure if it is a good thing or not. Perhaps as winter draws in I will be spending more time here.

Blogging is taking second place to:

* family - have been spending time 'over the hill' with Miss Four and Masters nearly three (twins), have nursed Auntie 91 (years old) as she recovered from an operation, visited Auntie 86, attended funeral of Uncle 87.

* talking on skype to our overseas children - skype is amazing!

* trip planning - we are off to Perth Australia next week to visit daughter and her partner, then to the UK in June,

* scrapbooking the postcards/Christmas cards as pictured in a previous post. Many of them are over 100 years old so thought that it was time they were preserved in a manner befitting their age, ie in acid free materials.

*gardening - giving the garden an autumn clean up. Have just dug up the rest of our potato crop, picked the last of the beans and tomatoes. Had our lawnmowing man prune the camellias, and the bay tree.

*cooking and freezing multitudes of apples and giving the rest away to the neighbours. I think that they sigh when they see me arriving with yet another bucket of apples.

*quilting - have just completed a quilt top for my grand daughter and taken to the lady with the long arm quilter to do the final quilting.

*reading - have discovered the Millenium series of books (Steig Larson)and am wading through the last one,

*beginning a digital photography group - time I learnt how to take better photos,

* doing an applique course to improve my machining skills.

And that is enough to be carrying on with!

Port Waikato

There is a distinct feeling of Autumn in the air but it doesn't stop the keen surfers. We were at Port Waikato a few weekends back and saw this trail of people heading out to the waves.

Port Waikato is on our West coast where the waves are often wilder and larger than the East. The sand is also black with a heavy iron content.