Hobbit Motel Waitomo

The Hobbit Motel

Pippy McCurdy: 

 http://www.unusualstays.com/

http://www.stumbleuponcroatiaslovenia.com/

I have decided that an underground house is the best type of house. Burrowed into a hillside this is your nest. This is safe. This is secure. Other  houses standing out in the country night alone, or shoulder to shoulder under the cold city street lights, somehow fail to generate that same sense of impermeable security.

On the particular night of my visit to Middle-Earth the rain drummed incessantly on the woodland path outside. Darkness swallowed the world. Thunder rolled and then it crashed so intensely that the glass in the window vibrated. But enfolded into the ground the Hobbit House felt  inviolate and impenetrable. Maybe it was the curve of the ceiling and the walls. Certainly there was a primitive, womb-like familiarity about this place with its white-washed barriers against the world.

Hobbits of course, live underground in Middle-Earth. With their strange hairy feet they retreat into the earth. I believe Wombles also live underground. Maybe these woolly creatures are onto something!

I like the Hobbit Motel in Waitomo. I like the sack-cloth curtains. I like the hollowed tree-trunk picture frames. I especially like the curve of the ceiling. But what I like best of all is the white donkey and the kune kune pig peering at me from the roof of my Hobbit House.

The pig with its curly pointy tusks and its black shaggy coat, is amazing. But most of all I love that donkey,..  I like the way he peers over the edge of the roof and curiously observes me pushing the key into the red oval door.

 I don't really want to leave my Hobbit House.




P.S. - Most people are good people - they will respect your property. Do we really need to be greeted by a list of rules?

Websites: http://www.unusualstays.com/
http://www.stumbleuponcroatiaslovenia.com/

The Lighthouse Island Bay

  Island Bay Lighthouse

Pippy McCurdy: 
 http://www.unusualstays.com/
http://www.stumbleuponcroatiaslovenia.com/

Island Bay is a small bay on the south coast of the North Island. With its fleet of small fishing boats moored close to the shore, it is picturesque and agreeable whether for swimming, strolling, fishing, or jogging. If your preference is to relax with a glass of wine and gaze at the often beautiful sunrises and sunsets, then the lighthouse is the place for you; - and it makes a fascinating place to spend a night.

 The lighthouse is a replica - not an original lighthouse, - but to be honest it is hard to tell it is not the real thing. Tall, thin, and hexagonal, its walls lean in to create ever-reducing floor plates. With a kitchen and bathroom on the ground floor, a bedroom on the second floor and the 'viewing lounge" at the top, it really has everything you could need.

The stairs are steep and narrow; - it is built for grown up visitors, not children  But for something different as a stay for two, you will have no regrets. This is an unusual, interesting and unique place to spend a night and lots of little touches make it rather special. There are chocolates by the bed; a newspaper is provided - how strange that so few places do this! There is also a delicious choice of breakfast provisions provided.

Island Bay Lighthouse is a great  place to visit and if you get up in time there is every chance you will catch a wonderful sunrise across the Bay. But if getting up early is not your thing, you will find that the sunsets across the Bay can be equally spectacular too!

Websites: http://www.unusualstays.com/
http://www.stumbleuponcroatiaslovenia.com/