I loved the New Zealand North Island. It was very comfortable, nice, and beautiful. I especially loved this first place!

Hobbiton

Hobbiton is where they filmed, well um, Hobbiton in the Lord of The Rings. If you haven’t already read The Lord of The Rings or The Hobbit, let me give you a quote from The Hobbit that describes how hobbits live. “In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort. It had a perfectly round door like a porthole, painted green, with a shiny yellow brass knob in the exact middle. The door opened on to a tube-shaped hall like a tunnel: a very comfortable tunnel without smoke, with paneled walls, and floors tiled and carpeted, provided with polished chairs, and lots and lots of pegs for hats and coats—the hobbit was fond of visitors. The tunnel wound on and on, going fairly but not quite straight into the side of the hill—The Hill, as all the people for many miles round called it—and many little round doors opened out of it, first on one side and then on another. No going upstairs for the hobbit: bedrooms, bathrooms, cellars, pantries (lots of these), wardrobes (he had whole rooms devoted to clothes), kitchens, dining-rooms, all were on the same floor, and indeed on the same passage. The best rooms were all on the left-hand side (going in), for these were the only ones to have windows, deep-set round windows looking over his garden, and meadows beyond, sloping down to the river.” (Quotation taken from The Hobbit by J.J.R. Tolkiens.)

I loved Hobbiton for this reason: it was cozy and fun. We took a van down to Hobbiton. Hobbiton is tucked into a grassy valley with a sea of green hills – each hill with a bright, round door. When we entered the valley, I felt immediately comforted. The puffy clouds floated over Hobbiton. In the middle of the valley there was a pond with a little bridge. Across the pond was the Green Dragon Tavern. Our Hobbiton experience also included dinner at the tavern. We spiraled down the valley. Clothes lines were waving in the wind. Each hobbit hole looked different from the last. Each one reflected the resident’s hobbies and jobs. It was magical. As the sun set, we walked across the bridge and headed into the tavern. The outside of the tavern was made with wood. Lanterns were strung across the doorway. Wheelbarrows were parked on the grass. We went inside. The smell of wood and fire swirled around me. I plopped down on the couch. The tavern felt so comfy. The bar tender poured me some yummy ginger ale and my dad and my mom some beer. As we finished our drinks the guides pulled back the curtains to the other room. Rows and rows of long tables were lined up. On them, dozens of bowls, plates and platters with food were laid out on the table. It was a feast. After, they said that there were hobbit clothes in the main room that we could try on and take pictures. I grabbed an apron and a bonnet, my dad put on on a cloak and a hat. We posed under the lanterns and skipped across the bridge. All the worries and troubles seemed far off. Hobbiton was a great experience.

Auckland

I was very excited to go to Auckland because we would be meeting my parents’ friends. We would be spending Christmas and New Year’s with them. On one of the first days, we went to a market. There were delicious dumplings at the market. Another day in Auckland, we went to a black sand beach. The sand was so warm and soft. At the beach, there was also a gannet colony. We hiked up a rocky hill and as we got to the top we could see hundreds of gannets. Dozens of them were flying back and forth to the sea. The gannets were white with yellow on their heads and had bluish eyes. I’m not going to deny though, there was definitely a smell.

Auckland was very comfortable. For Christmas, we had stuffed pasta shells, salad, veggies and bread with infused butter. Infused butter is my specialty. Infused butter is basically butter mixed with whatever herbs, sauces or spices you want. For Christmas, I got chocolates and an assortment of honey hand cream and honey lip balm, along with a book. It was a different Christmas, partly because I wasn’t surrounded by lots of family and partly because it was summertime, but it was still a good one.

Bay of Islands

The Bay of Islands is a group of 144 islands that rests in a bay on the northern peninsula of New Zealand’s North Island. The weather is tropical and warm climate for most of the year. First, we stayed in Keri Keri at one side of the bay. We stayed at a cute little Airbnb that was light and had a beautiful garden. It also had a cat named Speckles. The water in the Bay of Islands was turquoise or deep blue, beautiful colors. After we moved out of Keri Keri and went on to Russell, we booked a sailboat with our friends and cruised through the bay. We stopped at one island and went snorkeling; we saw squid! The water was pretty chilly though. We also went to the Waitangi Treaty Grounds. This place is important because this is where the Maori who first lived in New Zealand signed a treaty with the British. We watched a cultural performance of dancing and singing, visited the museum, saw the waka canoes and admired the great view. At midnight on New Year’s Eve, we walked down to the beach to watch the fireworks. First, another town on the other side of the bay called Paihia sent of fireworks. Theirs were big, wide and high. Next, Russell sent off fireworks. Because we were sitting on the beach in Russell, they seemed right above us. Russell’s fireworks were small but frequent, one after another. Boom. Boom. Boom. My heartbeat seemed to drum with the fireworks. The Bay of Islands was great.

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Next Stop: Bangkok, Thailand

For exploring the South Island of New Zealand, we rented a camper van. The van was tight quarters. It was fine, but I really didn’t like unmaking and making my bed every single morning and night. My dad liked the van, though, because he could park on the side of the road and take a nap in the back.

New Zealand felt very comfortable because culturally it didn’t feel very different. Therefore, this post will have more about what we saw rather than how it made me feel.

Lake Tekapo and Lake Pukaki

Lake Tekapo had brilliant blue water that glittered under the sun’s rays. It also had a little stone church that stood at the edge of the lake. We didn’t do much at this lake other than walk around a bit, take photos and eat at a Japanese restaurant. We camped at Lake Pukaki. When you are driving up to this lake, there are fields and fields of valentine colored lupine flowers. It was a beautiful sight.

Dansey’s Pass

Dansey’s Pass was beautiful. Tan, fuzzy hills stretched across the land for miles. The sun shone through the valley and into little streams. Sheep were scattered like paint that had been flicked onto the hills. We stopped at a campground near Dansey’s Pass that I thought was awesome. It had a good playground with a super bouncy trampoline. The grounds also had an awesome but terrifying rope swing. The swing’s rope attached to a very high tree branch and at the other end of the rope there was a flat piece of wood to sit on. That part of the swing dangled 15 feet above the cold river that ran around the camp. I sat down on the piece of wood and walked off the platform. I screamed; I dropped ten feet and then swung out, high above the river! It was great fun! The host also had pans for finding gold in the river. We tried once but got nothing but a bunch of bug bites.

Queenstown

I really liked Queenstown. I loved walking around on the boardwalks where the crashing waves hit the sides of the boats. There is a mountain by Queenstown that you can take a gondola up and ride down the mountain on a luge, which is like a sit-down scooter. The luge was so fun! Queenstown also had a very good restaurant named Public, which I highly recommend. Queenstown was very nice.

Milford Sound

Milford Sound was incredible! We took a two-hour cruise. Once, our ship pulled up so close to a waterfall that we were under it! We went out of the sound and into the sea. It was a pretty day; the sky was clear and the wind was whistling. We also saw seals; they were so cute! The rolling green mountains tumbled into the sound. Planes also circled the mountains and dove down towards the water. It was a great day.

Castle Rocks

I really liked the Castle Rocks. It felt peaceful. I wish I could’ve stayed longer. In fact, I would probably even like to own the Castle Rocks. It was a bright green grass hill that was covered in smooth round rocks of all shapes and sizes. Some looked like enormous eggs, some looked like the perfect rock climbing rock and others looked like anything you could possibly imagine. I loved crawling on top of the rocks, and looking out over the bright green grass that covered the ground as far as the horizon. I liked feeling the wind tussle my hair back and forth, and the sun shining down on my face. At the end of our time at the Castle Rocks I laid down flat on my back and stared up at the clear blue sky.

Unique Animals

We went to the glow worm caves. We stepped into the boat in the pitch black. The seat was cold in the dark. I shivered. Our boat pushed off the dock, and we went deeper into the cave. Then, all of a sudden, we went into a corridor of the cave that was lit by tiny blue lights. Holes in the cave? No, glow worms! Bright, tiny lights were scattered all over the dark walls. Like a perfect, clear night sky. It was so quiet that my breathing echoed in the cave. My mouth hung open. I was stunned by the beauty. The twinkling lights passed above me as the boat crept along. It was a very special experience. The second unique creature experience were eels. At one campground, we were told that we could go down to the stream and feed eels. We debated what to feed them:

“They mostly use their nose to find food. We should try something smelly.”

“We have some cheese.”

“No, they probably like something meaty.”

“We have some tortellini.”

“That will do,” I said. I clutched the bag of tortellini and we clomped down to the stream. Along the stream there was a little dock and on it we found long sticks with hooks at the end. The tortellinis were a hit. Eels as long as my arm’s length, with bright blue eyes, swam up and chomped down on the tortellini that we had waiting for them in the water, and then swam off. It was so much fun.

The South Island was great, but I was excited to see friends in the North Island along with seeing beautiful scenery!

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El Calafate 

El Calafate was our first stop in Patagonia. El Calafate is the town nearest the Moreno Glacier. On the first day, we drove down to the glacier. As the big blue white land mass peeked over above the hills in the distance an excited squeal exited our mouths. The glacier was incredible! It spiraled down valleys and mountains, freezing everything it touched. It presented a bright stunning blue that looked luminescent. By the viewing deck, the blue took a sheer drop-off into the icy waters. In the afternoon, you could hear the cracking of the glacier and, sometimes if you were lucky, you would see a large chunk of ice plummet into the water creating an enormous splash! As the sun squeezed its way out from the clouds, it would shine through the ice, making it look even more blue and chilling. It was definitely a once in a lifetime experience.

We also saw several foxes in El Calafate. Cream and brown ones whose fur would blow in the wind. They scampered around or slept. When they slept they would use their bushy tail as a pillow. They were so cute!

Along with foxes we also saw wild horses. They stood against the horizon swishing their long tails back and forth; they were beautiful!

El Chalten

The next place we went was a little town called El Chalten. El Chalten is famous for a tall skinny mountain that towers over the already small town making the town look miniature. There are several trails and treks you can take to get a picturesque view.

During one of the hikes we had to climb up a practically sheer cliff that was covered in snow. My heart was pounding so loud it felt like it would just pop right out of my chest. We made it though and it was surely a hike I will never forget. The hikes were great until you got close to the end. Then, you just felt like collapsing on the ground, hard rock or grass. My feet felt like they were being stabbed every time they touched the earth. As soon as we stepped inside the Airbnb, I fell onto my knees. Walking on my knees for the rest of the afternoon was my go-to transportation. Also, on one hike we were just walking along when all of a sudden my dad looked back at me and said, “Ha, oh no. Oh no.” As I peeked over his shoulder to get a better view of what everyone was making such a fuss over, I saw a long black hairy body with two white stripes down its back and a pink nose: a skunk. Calm is a word I would never use to describe how I felt then. I bundled my sweatshirt together and pressed it to my nose. The little creature busily dug around for food. We scurried past. My mom was the last one to leave that area of trail. When she caught up to us she remarked at how “cute” the skunk was.

The next thing of our trip to El Chalten might be the highlight of the whole trip to South America. My dad had booked a horseback ride just thirty minutes out of town. A shuttle from the horseback ride place picked us up at our Airbnb and drove off, down to the place. We arrived on a small dirt road, and hopped off. There was a rushing river on the other side of the dirt road. We followed our guide through some shrubs and emerged on the bank of the river. There in front of us, was a skinny, wobbly bridge that hovered over the river and was only connected to the bank by ropes. We waddled along on the bridge, as the fast current swept underneath us. We stepped off the bridge and entered the stables area. There was a field of grass with a few trees that horses were resting under. There were about a dozen horses standing around the field all with their eyes closed, sleeping. We were led to a barn and given chaps to put on. Then, we were each separately shown to a horse. We were in a group of about six people or so. I followed the guide to a tree far back with two horses who were saddled up. The first horse had a tan coat with a white mane and a stocky build. The second horse was smaller but not pony size. She was white and had a long tail that swished back and forth. She had little gray freckles and fuzzy ears. I followed the guide to the white horse. I am just going to say now that this horse, was and is still my favorite horse I have ever ridden, ever! I loved this horse so, so much! She was sweet, responsive and gentle. I mounted her and stroked her neck. The guide held the reins in front of me and gestured to the right and then to the left and then said something in Spanish. I understood enough though. I walked my horse over to where the rest of the group was meeting. My mom had a white horse with a short mane and no freckles. My dad had a very large black and brown horse with a patch of white on his forehead. The guide mounted her horse and we were off. We walked alongside the mountain and came into a large field that had dozens of horses sleeping, eating, froliking and staring at us. We later called this place “horse paradise.” We came upon a stream that stretched down into the valley, forming a small lake. Our horses stopped and took a drink, and then waded through the stream. We also had the pleasure of trotting at a fair speed, half of the time. We walked across big rock formations and went down into the valley. We trotted through the valley and into a marshy forest. Our horses were a good sport and clomped through the flooded trail. We exited the forest and hiked up the mountain. Here we stopped, tied our horses to a post and had tea and alfajores (as I described earlier in Buenos Aires, alfajores are a cookie with caramel in the middle). When we finished, we went back to our horses and got ready to ride again. This time we rode on the other side of the valley. We came into a very large field that had hundreds of sheep. They ba’d like crazy. Occasionally, there were little white lambs that ran behind their parents to hide. Then, we went into another forest. There were fewer sheep here but there were some who were taking advantage of the shade that the trees provided. As we exited the forest and went into the sun again, the guide pointed up to a gap in between two mountains. In between the gap was Mount Fitz Roy, towering into the sky. It was beautiful. I was so sad when we re-entered the stables. We got to stay for a little while and un-saddle our horses, and see our guide throw alfalfa and hay into the field and the horses happily munch away. I said bye to my horse that had been so good to me throughout the ride. We walked across the wobbly bridge again and hopped in the shuttle. As we drove along the road our guide pointed out the window down into the valley and said, “Mi padre” (my father). We looked down into the valley and saw man on a tall, strong horse galloping across the valley with five dogs behind him. When we got back to the Airbnb I said, “That was the best time ever

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NEXT STOP: NEW ZEALAND