The Watermill

We drove from Te Ahora first to Matamata and Hobbiton today, and it was awesome! The whole tour was very well organised so that you had time to stop and take photos (I took lots!) and ask questions. Although there were hundreds of people there, it didn't feel busy because the tours left every fifteen minutes and yet we had two and a half hours to walk around. It meant we had time to blip the set without other folks in the view. We also had time to teach some foreigners in our group how to maypole dance (remember Bilbo's party?) I think we lost something in translation but there were lots of laughs. I could write at length about seeing the hobbit holes and hearing about the stripping of trees to replace apples with plums (the attention to detail is mind boggling) but it's enough to say that it is a fantastic tour, finished off with a jug of delicious apple cider in the Green Dragon pub!
We spent lots of money in the shop and had a very delicious lunch in the cafe before driving to Rotorua where we are now comfortably in our posh holiday park with proper power for two nights. We misread the info and thought the park was nearer to the town centre so we got on the bikes and found a cycle path in to Rotorua itself, discovering the sulphur pools en route! That's another first, pedalling past gurgling, steaming pools to the side of the track!
You will have seen from my blip of the watermill at Hobbiton that the rain came during the night and cleared through for our tour. It's predicted to rain again tomorrow for our bike ride in the redwood forest but it won't deter us!