For those of you venturing to New Zealand, I have a few things for you.
In Auckland: http://www.explorerbus.co.nz/ Two different routes with 14 attractions. $AU45. Summer season begins Oct. 1st with buses departing every 30 minutes.
Hobbiton
New Zealand’s new favorite destination: Hobbiton, the movie set where The Lord of the Rings Movies were filmed. You cannot do this yourself. You must book a tour. Click the green sentence for more photos
Hobbiton is a Real Place in New Zealand. This is What it Looks Like
Tiritirima Tangi Open Preserve
http://www.tiritirimatangi.org.nz/home
Tiritiri Matangi Island is a wildlife sanctuary and one of New Zealand’s most important and exciting conservation projects. It is located 30km north east of central Auckland and just 4km from the end of the Whangaparaoa Peninsula. A hundred and twenty years of farming had seen this 220-hectare island stripped of 94% of its native bush but between 1984 and 1994, volunteers planted between 250,000 and 300,000 trees. The Island is now 60% forested with the remaining 40% left as grassland for species preferring open habitat.
Wiki travel: http://wikitravel.org/en/New_Zealand
Donna Gawell 