This is the post we wanted to write!

We made it! We’re in New Zealand!

Tim has been wanting to go on this trip since the Lord of the Rings films were released over 15 years ago! So he is very excited to get going and see all of the hills, rocks and trees that they filmed near.

But for our first day we just had a relax in Auckland – we definitely needed it!

Our accomodation is a beautiful little bungalow with a bed almost as soft as Tat’s “marshmallow bed” and a fantastic shower. So we’ve done pretty well there.

After getting some supplies for our first big-ish drive tomorrow, we headed into the CBD and walked along a quay – couldn’t tell you what quay, but there was water and boats and it had a similar vibe to Southbank in Melbourne.

 We looked at quite a few restaurants that all seemed very nice, but the one that won out was a bar that also had three  nine-hole mini-golf courses!

We did all of them.

Tim won.

The bar was called Holey Moley. We were really impressed with the creativity and thought that had gone into designing and theming each hole. 

There were all sorts of crazy unique and wacky ideas, a lot them themed after movies and TV shows. 

One involved putting your ball in a pinball machine and wacking it out, over a mini pool table (where you used your golf club as a pool cue if the ball go stuck) and then putting it into the hole. 

At some of the holes your score was determined by where the ball ended up – one of these was a giant tilt maze where you had to use gravity to direct the ball around obstacles and higher point holes in order to reach the Hole in One. Tat managed to do it! But only after several tries while waiting for another section to free up.

Of course one of the holes was based on Middle Earth! It was hidden behind another set and we must have walked past it about five times before we finally noticed it. Tat almost got a hole in one but just missed!

The final one required us to hit the ball up into an Iron Throne (from Game of Thrones) made out of golf clubs! The two groups in front of us took many, many tries to do it (one group seemed quite intoxicated) but Tat did it in three tries and Tim did it in two.

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Who says we’re both uncoordinated? Shame on you!

In between each course we had some drinks and food. Tat had a cocktail called a “Lemon Slice” that had Gin, Malibu, lemon & pineapple juice. 

It was amazing. Tim had a Little Creatures Pale Ale (on tap) which is apparently from New Zealand and he thought it was nicer than in Australia.

Tim was also very impressed that the designers had thought to have a stand at each hole to put your drinks and score card on.

It was heaps of fun and we’d definitely recommend it if your find yourself in Auckland with a spare hour or two!

Afterwards, we came back to our accomodation and played a new card game we are learning called Keyforge.

Tim won.

Again.

Day 2 has been much less stressful than day 1 and we are starting to feel more relaxed and in “Holiday Mode”. We are very much looking forward to starting our big road trip tomorrow, heading into The Shire (Matamata) and seeing our first Middle Earth Filming location!

We will post soon,

Tim & Tat