Hobbiton movie set from Tauranga

[Esilef]

We will be in Tauranga on 5/1/24 on the Royal Princess, I just hired a car from the port for the day. The ship docks at 9am and departure is 8:30pm

 

do you believe we will have time to do the Hobbiton movie set tour at 3:40pm for 2 hours?

 

yes I’m one of those annoying people whom likes to be off the boat early and back 2 hours prior to sailing 

[Esilef]

Rite Price Rentals does car rental from the port of Tauranga 

[onlyslightlymad]

I live in Tauranga.  You should be okay, as you are not hitting peak traffic at that time.  The traffic on the Kaimais (the range between Tauranga and Waikato) can really back up during peak times.  But if you finish your tour at 1740, get straight to your car, leave at 1800, an hour's drive if the traffic is good, back at 1900-ish.  You will probably be fine, assuming no accidents, or mishaps blocking the Kaimai road.  Otherwise, where's the next port?

[Esilef]

Next port is Auckland but desperately don’t want to be filmed running for the cruise ship in Tauranga with the people on board laughing and waving. I’d much rather be the one laughing 

[MicCanberra]

Good luck, I suppose they didn't have an earlier tour time.

[onlyslightlymad]

34 minutes ago, Esilef said:

Next port is Auckland but desperately don’t want to be filmed running for the cruise ship in Tauranga with the people on board laughing and waving. I’d much rather be the one laughing 

Just remember that if there is an accident or slip on the Kaimais, you are stuck on the other side.  There is only the one road that way.  You would have to go the Rotorua way which would add a lot of extra time to your journey.  That most probably won't happen but it does happen very occasionally.

[Esilef]

2 hours ago, MicCanberra said:

Good luck, I suppose they didn't have an earlier tour time.

Exactly 

[MMDown Under]

10 hours ago, Esilef said:

We will be in Tauranga on 5/1/24 on the Royal Princess, I just hired a car from the port for the day. The ship docks at 9am and departure is 8:30pm

 

do you believe we will have time to do the Hobbiton movie set tour at 3:40pm for 2 hours?

 

yes I’m one of those annoying people whom likes to be off the boat early and back 2 hours prior to sailing 

Plan B - Ask rental company can you drop the car in Auckland the next day to rejoin the ship there (3 hrs 200 klm)?  Accidents happen.  In Norway passengers were stuck on top of a mountain following a car accident.  Fortunately it was a cruise tour.  We only ventured independently on foot in the valley.

 

[Esilef]

Hobbiton has filled the earlier times, so we are just going to go to Rotorua and ensure we are back at the ship by 6pm.

[Anoynmous Phoenix]

@Esilef

 

Lots to do and see in Rotorua but my "don't miss" is St Faith's Church at Ohinemutu with Christ walking on the water.

[Esilef]

Decided to just check the date and time we needed for Hobbiton again and it was actually available! So I quickly booked it. Planning on going to Rotorua or the morning and then allowing plenty of time to get to Hobbiton after lunch.

 

we regularly go to New Zealand and just love it. Every part is just so different and beautiful.

[Anoynmous Phoenix]

@Esilef

 

If you are hiring a car and intend to go to Rotorua via the Toll Road check with the hire company how you have to pay the toll.

 

I got caught out in Vancouver a while ago.

[2022cruisey]

We would like to book a hire car for the day in Tauranga but I just be doing something wrong as it won’t let me book just for the day.   The cruise I am on is not showing any shore excursions for the port and we really want to see Rotorua and surrounds.  

[possum52]

35 minutes ago, 2022cruisey said:

We would like to book a hire car for the day in Tauranga but I just be doing something wrong as it won’t let me book just for the day.   The cruise I am on is not showing any shore excursions for the port and we really want to see Rotorua and surrounds.  

Perhaps book a tour privately instead of through the ship. There are usually plenty to choose from at Tauranga. Just google cruise ship tours Tauranga. We booked through Zealandier Tours - 

Zealandier Tours Tauranga

[Esilef]

9 hours ago, Anoynmous Phoenix said:

@Esilef

 

If you are hiring a car and intend to go to Rotorua via the Toll Road check with the hire company how you have to pay the toll.

 

I got caught out in Vancouver a while ago.

They have this included in the car hire 

[Esilef]

4 hours ago, 2022cruisey said:

We would like to book a hire car for the day in Tauranga but I just be doing something wrong as it won’t let me book just for the day.   The cruise I am on is not showing any shore excursions for the port and we really want to see Rotorua and surrounds.  

We booked with Rite Price car hire. They are located at the airport and run a shuttle bus between the port and their location. Alternative is to find a car hire company at the airport and taxi between the two

[2022cruisey]

Since there are no excursions showing at all I am worried we will not be going there and will contact Princess to find out.  There is a particular shore excursion we are interested in, which will be mostly covered by OBC.  I am reluctant to book anything else until I find out what is going on.

[boeckli]

6 hours ago, 2022cruisey said:

Since there are no excursions showing at all I am worried we will not be going there and will contact Princess to find out.  There is a particular shore excursion we are interested in, which will be mostly covered by OBC.  I am reluctant to book anything else until I find out what is going on.

 

I just looked at the Princess website for your 8th Jan cruise and it shows 18 excursions for Tauranga.  

[cruiselvr04]

We booked this through shore trips, includes transportation to and from.

[Esilef]

13 hours ago, boeckli said:

 

I just looked at the Princess website for your 8th Jan cruise and it shows 18 excursions for Tauranga.  

We are there on the 5th January with royal princess and princess has tours listed.

[2022cruisey]

The tours are listed on the website but when we log in and try to book, there are no tours at all for Tauranga.  We have booked other town shore excursions on the same cruise so it is unusual.

[SinbadThePorter]

They have been renovating Hobbiton for the past few months and are trying to limit the numbers of visitors.

 

The way they are doing this is to only allow local tour operators in. So cruise booked tours are not running.

 

Once you get to Tauranga you should be able to book a Hobbiton excursion at the wharf, or else online.

[Essence08]

We've got the same glitch with Tauranga on our Dec 20th Cruise - previously there were a bunch of excursions available - not when you go into your cruise booking, look at excursions there is an error message 

[2022cruisey]

It is very annoying.  When I have time to book it is after business hours so live chat is unavailable.  I’m going to try to do it at lunchtime and see if I can get an answer.

[lyndarra]

On 12/4/2023 at 9:34 PM, SinbadThePorter said:

Once you get to Tauranga you should be able to book a Hobbiton excursion at the wharf, or else online.

That may not be possible.

Hobbiton tours have set time slots which are usually booked well in advance. In 2020 I booked a tour months in advance (self drive tour of NZ) and there were very few time slots left.