a Word from the Skipper

....‘allo mate! skipper here,

and... I’d just like to tell you about a recent adventure in the emerald illes of Nouvelle Zealand!

I was just jutting away the half mast steaming toward the starboard side when I was blown asunder with a magnificant sight...there between the mizzen and poop deck was just the most gourgeous purple peckeral I’d ever layed eyes on. I had heard wind that these parts were inhabited by those lovely creatures, but I mus’admit I haddn’t believed until I had seen...So I was just about to grab me nikkon camera to take a picture when I slipped on the main cord and fell hand over feet into the barrile post.

Ah whataday! .. whata I do for Hobbit Travel

The skipper is a completely fictional charactor. Please do not write to or attempt to become friends with the Skipper.

OK, so how am I going to get there?

Anyone can use a massive site like Orbits or Expedia and get a ticket to fly to New Zealand.But what you can’t find there is the personal, friendly and knowledgeable service one can get from Great Escape Travel.

Why would I want personal, friendly and knowledgeable service when I can get tickets spit out of an impersonal mistake prone computer program?
That, my friend, is a stupid question. Why not let John and Jeanne at Great Escape show you what traveling is really about: its about not only getting a great deal on a ticket, but getting a great flight, its about experiencing an adventure while knowing that a great meal and a comfortable bed awaits when you return to your hotel, and its about having a travel experience tailored to your interests and expectations without spending half the time pouring through incomprehensible guide books.

Thats what I’m looking forward to during my trip!
Great Escape Travel is going to treat me right, and its all going to be free because I’ve come up with such a great idea for a Blog.

Let John, Jeanne and the Skipper
guide you on your tour! Here's to Hobbit Travel

It’s like Tolkien walked across New Zealand

“ So it was literally going to another world, a world of clean air, the most crystal-clear water, and the richest of green in the trees. There are these huge, towering summits and volcanoes, and rivers and streams. It’s like Tolkien walked across New Zealand and then sat down to write the trilogy."

Sean Astin

What should I bring to New Zealand ?

A few “suggestions” from Hobbit Travel

Travelers often do not know what to expect when they go to exotic locales such as New Zealand. The worry, “will there be food that I can eat?” and pack twenty processed energy bars just in case; or they will wonder “how ever will I stay clean?” and bring a suitcase full of toiletries; or they will remark, “I better not be stuck without toilet paper!” and bring 2 cases of the stuff.


Well, you should relax and put the stuff away, because New Zealand
has all the creature comforts you might want.

There are, however, a few things a savvy traveler must not
leave home without before they depart to New Zealand.

The List:

1. A suitable American style garment, such as a crass tshirt
or flag hat that lights up and plays the star
spangled banner. This will help the locals identify
you from a long distance and, if so inclined, avoid
you.

2. A money belt. – Just in case you want to drop off in Australia on the way to Middle-earth. The Aussies are all descended from former convicts.:-)

3. Jam. Or else who knows what they will make you
spread on your toast

4. Dagger. To fight orcs or other evil characters from
‘the Lord of the Rings’.

5. Your sense of humor!

Cheers from Hobbit Travel :-)

New Zealand is gorgeous!

"New Zealand is gorgeous! I don't really think that there's anywhere else we could have filmed this movie unless we had travelled to lots of different places around the world. Every element of Middle-earth is contained in New Zealand. It's perfect. There are so many different geographical landscapes: mountains, woods, marshes, desert areas, rolling hills - and the sea. Everything, in fact described in the Lord of the Rings."

Elijah Wood.

Hobbit Travel - New Zealand: Two Islands

Kia ora, (Middle-earthspeak for Greetings or G'day)

Hobbit Traveler will explore Middle Earth's (oops, New Zealand's) two Islands - if you don’t count the other ones - sorry to those Kiwis in Steward Island and the other big “Island’ called Aussie (short for Australia!). Whisper, we may drop into the 'other' islands along the way.

The Island that looks like a bird flying away is called the ‘North’ Island. It's flying away from the one that looks like a log, also
known as the ‘South’ Island (often referred to by its inhabitants as “the Mainland”.) It, the Island that is, wants to get away from the bitter cold that is harbored in the South Island. BRRRRRRR- but hey that’s only in the winter – and the North Island winter weather is gorgeous – well mostly..

Middle Earth is an alternative name for New Zealand and another is Aotearoa; meaning 'Long White Cloud' (from the indigenous Maori Kiwis: Ao-tea-roa = Cloud-white-long). Hobbit travel will explore the mystique of Aotearoa’s Polynesian heritage which adds a mysterious magical quality to the insider secrets which will be unearthed along the way.

Hobbit Travel

HOW GREAT IS...
NEW ZEALAND?!

G'day,

I look at just how much I love New Zealand, even though I’ve never been! How can I resist its mountain majesty, the majestic lakes and the majesteral... .sheep...um...and mountains! - real Hobbit travel.


Boromir, Pippin, Sam, Legolas, Aragorn

I knew next to nothing about New Zealand until I saw Lord of the Rings. I read the books first actually, but they didn’t really do the place justice. Not until I saw the movie did I understand that if I wanted to see what it was like to be a Hobbit, then New Zealand was the place for me. Really, before Lord of the Rings, the only exposure we Americans had about New Zealand was the statistic about sheep to people and the fact that there were these birds called Kiwis that couldn’t fly, like small ostriches and that the people were called Kiwis and that somehow they also had fruit called Kiwis. Which is named after which we never knew.

So...Lord of the Rings, it was amazing! Then other things came out about New Zealand, like that they liked Rugby, which is nice, and of course the seven legged sheep.

So, join me, shall you, as we explore how much I would like to see this mythical land “Down Under, and just to the Right” as they say. It sure will be fun to see! - but first lets talk a little - more next time on planning for the Hobbit travel wanderings around Middle-earth.