Middle-earth is calling!

Today I was let loose in Botany Shopping Centre, approx. 50 min drive from central Auckland.
I used to live here several years ago so the area is quite familiar to me. Shopping centres in Auckland New Zealand are a bit different from the ones I know from home. There are no gloomy, narrow, dark, claustrophic, tight areas to walk through (did I mention I am not particularly happy with the shopping centres back home?). Here, they are built with an indoor / outdoor flow and you can easily get outside for some fresh air & have a coffee while the kids are playing on the nearby playground. And what great playgrounds!!

I even found the hobit house in between the shops! Ok, I have never seen the Lord of the Rings movies - don't shoot me! but these houses would have been recognized anywhere. For those of you who don't know it either, Middle-earth is the home of the hobits and the rest of the guys from Lord of the Rings.

Botany hobit house

Cute chimney for a hobit fireplace

This little gnome was sitting inside (sorry, bad quality picture)

The centres here are very open and light with entrances on both sides of the shops so you can easily escape outside for a coffee or to let the kids go bananas on the playground while the husband is spending the money.

Botany Town Centre; first you are outside.....

...then you are inside

Tea time anyone?

Who would have thought this is a shopping centre?

Playground for shopping tired kids (and parents)

Outdoor furniture in my next life...

Above outdoor furniture didn't come with me home this time, but it would have looked very cool in my soon- to-be garden. A bit "1001 Night" feeling....
The picture is from the furniture chain, Danske Møbler, who has a selection of Scandinavian furniture (like Ekornes). Yeah...I was daydreaming... Wakey wakey!!