Days 11 and 12 - Hobbiton and Rotorua

It's been busy here, and there wasn't any internet access in Rotorua. Let's see. When last we met our heroes, they were in Auckland. We'll pick up the story from there.

Auckland, part 2- Not too much to say here, we spent our second day in Auckland buying some souveniers and visiting the Maritime Museum, which had LOTS of old boats, pictures of boats, drawings of boats, models of boats, and pieces of boats, and pictures of people who sailed on boats. Did I mention that they also had boats? All in all, it was a pretty cool museum, especially for boat lovers.

Next day, we headed down to Rotorua, a spa town with thermal stuff like geysers. But first, we had to stop in Matamata for a tour of Hobbiton. This involved us exchanging currency for a bus ride to a sheep farm, complete with authentic sheep poo.

Hobbiton is on a working sheep farm, and part of the original set was left behind because it started to rain. It was pretty interesting to see. Many of the scenes from the beginning of the first movie were filmed here. The hobbit holes, of course, are only facades, as they filmed the interior scenes in the studio. The area around Hobbition was also very beautiful.

Next stop- Rotorua. This town really stinks! It's true- there are so many geysers, bubbling mud pits, and steam vents around the town that it literally stinks of sulfur. Takes some getting used to. It's a wild place- driving down the road in the middle of town there is suddenly a block that has steam rising out of it instead of a building.

We went to a couple of different places with a collection of thermal features, and also took in a Maori show. Maori are pacific islanders who settled down here years ago, before the property market really took off. The show was similar in many ways to the stuff you'd see at a Hawaiian luau. Of course, they are cousins.

Another thing we discovered about NZ- road construction. The whole damn country is being repaved right now. Apparently, they start construction this month so that they can be sure of getting funding to finish in next years budget. This was annoying, but is superior to the Costa Rican way, where the road is torn up and then everyone leaves and never comes back to finish.

We're leaving tomorrow AM early, so we'll probably post a few last pictures and comments on Friday afternoon, California time.

-Rich