While chatting with some of Neil’s friends during an after work beer we learned that Hobbiton ( the movie set with all the Hobbit Holes) was a short detour on our way back north, so we booked in to a hot springs campground near there, where we managed to get some much needed showers, use the laundry and Debbie got to soak in the springs. I meanwhile, set the glider up from its short pack box. It was living in the van and a royal pain, now it is in its flying configuration and on its new home on the roof.

The tour starts from the “Shire” where you take a bus for a few kilometers and then a guide takes you on a 2 hour tour around the movie set explaining the differences in them all and some other remarkable facts. The tour ends up in the Green Dragon pub (built after the movie and for the tours) where you can enjoy a fantastic local “craft” beer. A gallery of photos of the tour follows.

We consider ourselves extremely lucky to have bumped in to Neil and had some vital work done on our new van at his shop in Mt Mangenui. Finding a mechanic who is honest and does quality work is not always easy, and to find one where the owner is a genuine bona FIda , card carrying, wonderful “character”
and nice guy is probably a lot harder. We found it worth our while to drive back down south a couple of hundred kilometers to Neil’s garage to get service work, brake work, hang glider rack work and a lot of other small things that we kept adding on. Neil and his mechanics instilled confidence in us with the work they did on our van. Never having seen a Toyota Hiace before, let alone owning one,(the engine is in the front) it was great to feel confident and learn about the van. Neil lent us a car while the van was being worked on and we went on several shopping sprees buying items to make our van more comfortable for our travels.