I'm small enough to be a hobbit

We woke up later than planned and so left a little later than we were meant to. We did manage to have poached eggs on toast for breakfast though which was a real treat. With a scrumptious breakfast in my belly I was ready for another day of adventure. 

On our way south to the Hobbiton tour we passed near to hot water beach and so went again to actually dig a hole. There were quite a few people with spades (you could hire one for $5 at the cafe) sitting in these little pools they'd created. We chose to just paddle in the hot pools because it was rather chilly out. The water was amazing though! It was just like bath water it was that warm. Some parts were even too warm. We spent nearly half an hour paddling and trying to dig our own pool rather than stealing other people's. It was then time to move on to a place called Matamata so we could do our Hobbiton tour. However, we stupidly underestimated how long it was going to take us to drive there so when we realised we would be late I had to try and call. As we don't have New Zealand phone numbers this will have cost Matt a fair bit (I used his phone rather than mine). All was fine though as they said we could just go on the next tour. 

It turned out that we were only 10 minutes late but we did miss our tour. This meant we had time for lunch (tuna sandwiches) before getting on a green bus to Hobbiton. Our lovely bus driver called Linda drove us 10 minutes through the countryside, past the house where Peter Jackson lived while the Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit movies were being filmed. We then picked up our guide before driving through the Alexander farm to the set. The set was magical. Just like it was real. None of the hobbit holes actually had anything inside them and only one opened up to a blank space that went back about a metre. However, the intricate detail on all of them was pretty amazing. I can't remember how many there were but there was a lot more than I originally thought there'd be. Some were bigger than others so that Gandalf could look big while the hobbits looked normal. We ended the walk round the holes at the Green Dragon pub and were allowed one free drink each. I had an apple cider and Matt had a non-alcoholic ginger beer. The ginger beer was definitely the tastiest!

Back on the bus and after a quick stop off at the expensive gift shop we headed back to Matamata. Hobbiton had been pretty surreal but now we had the decision of where to go next. We'd originally planned to head to the Waitomo caves which are meant to be amazing but instead we chose to save money (we would have had to pay for an expensive tour) and head to Rotorua. It took us around an hour to get there and after driving round the little town to check out hostels we settled for the Lonely Planet top rated one: Funky Green Backpackers. There was no TV but there was a lovely stove and super comfy beds. The supermarket was also just across the road so we nipped in to get food for tea. We had rigatoni with a tomato and mozzarella sauce with red pepper, onion and green beans. We finished our tea with a very chocolatey chocolate cake. I love chocolate.