Bach of the day
The ubiquitous holiday cottage offers cheap and cheerful accommodation during a tour of the top end of New Zealand's North Island, finds Ed Peters
Few opening lines pack such an intriguing punch as J.R.R. Tolkien's "In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit."
And ever since Peter Jackson brought his particular brand of alchemy to the silver screen, visitors - 500,000-plus at the last count - have been flocking to Hobbiton, the movie set on New Zealand's North Island, to get a closer look at the Green Dragon Inn, The Mill, the double-arched bridge and, yes, those Hobbit Holes.
Weaving a blend of other-worldly magic with stunningly bucolic landscapes, in many ways Hobbiton is quintessentially Kiwi. However, the half-million rubber-neckers are the antithesis of a country that's defined by its wide open spaces and scant population. Few New Zealand homes lack a garden, and many folk have a second home, a holiday cottage known as a bach - pronounced "batch" as in "bachelor" - which they're often all too happy to let out when not in residence.
Bachs are eminently more comfortable than a hole in the ground, and amazingly good value - try NZ$100 (HK$650) a low-season night for a three-bedroom house and garden. So, having picked up a set of wheels - appropriately branded Jucy El Cheapo - we head north from Auckland Airport, destination Langs Beach.
As an antidote to Hong Kong, there can be few better hangouts. No shops, no restaurants, no petrol station and barely a soul in sight: Langs Beach does what it says on the packet, with just a few score houses set about the hillside looking out over Bream Bay.