The Ostrom Family Adventures

It’s been a big couple of weeks in the Ostrom Adventure log! there has been a lot of work, school and fun, but also we are intentionally trying to find this balance between temporary expats and tourists. It’s easy to fall into a rhythm of life around work and school and forget to appreciate and seek out adventure, growth and beauty wherever you are. Perhaps that is one of the reasons “why” we embarked on this year.

Last weekend we went to Rotorua to go mountain biking. This little town is a Mecca for adventure sports and especially mountain biking. By “mecca” – to the point where Crankworks (a huge international mountain biking competition and festival) is going on next week and yes, we are going!!! :).

After our day of riding, one tough spill for Leif with a scraped up leg and only slightly injured pride, we recovered in the hot tubs and cold plunges at the Secret Spot.

The following day we drove up to Auckland and met some wonderful friends traveling from Portland and took them on a quick adventure to Piha beach so they could get their feet burned on a North Island black sand beach before heading back to the US.

The prior week I worked overnight solo at the urgent care for the first time and really enjoyed it. I’m just did again last night and thus ask that you pardon my spelling, delay in writing and perhaps lack of creativity in describing our next adventures.

Hamilton Gardens!

Since we are now locals, we were able to get free annual passes to the Gorgeous Hamilton Gardens – which we can ride bikes to and are a big tourist draw to Hamilton.

This past weekend we were able to go to our first Rugby match! The Waikato Chiefs vs. the Brumbies (out of Canberra Australia). It was an awesome match and the Chiefs won 49-34! We have a lot to learn about rugby still but really loved watching the game in person! And, we can bike to the Chiefs stadium! 🙂

Hobbiton!

If you can’t find me, I’ll be here.

40 minutes from Hamilton is the set of Hobbiton. We’ve driven through the valley multiple times now on our way to Tauranga and Rotorua, but Mason got us tickets to go to the tour as we just finished reading The Hobbit with Leif. These are the only movies he has been allowed to watch before reading the book,

The rural farmland around Matamata – just west of the Kaimai mountain range is one of our favorite places to drive through with gorgeous sheep fields and rolling hills with random huge boulders in them.

Photos and videos will never do justice to the amount of detail and overall love and care that those who built and maintain Hobbiton give to this little heaven.

We walked through one of the gorgeous hobbit holes and we all are planning a remodel when we get home now!

To my writerly friends and family, this is the perfect place to write a book!

And the kitchen!!

We had pints (and a muffin and scone) at the Green Dragon which was lovely!

We learned that, 1. Hobbits become adults at age 33 so scene of the birthday party was even more special than we thought.

2. Hobbiton was built twice. The first time for The Lord of the Rings movies and they spent 3 months filming here and then it was torn down and returned to farmland. They rebuilt it more permanently for filming The Hobbit movies and spent only 12 days filming in Hobbiton. Over the 6 movies, only 14 minutes total footage was from this set!!

Excerpt from Bilbo’s “The Roads go ever ever on.”

Roads go ever ever on,
Under cloud and under star.
Yet feet that wandering have gone
Turn at last to home afar.
Eyes that fire and sword have seen,
And horror in the halls of stone
Look at last on meadows green,
And trees and hills they long have known.