We had a nice breakfast at the hotel and I went for a walk around the nearby marina. There must be over 1,000 boats in this one and it is not the largest marina in the harbour. Boats from all over the world.
We got underway a little after 10:00 am so we missed the Monday morning traffic going through Auckland. We tried to follow a scenic rural route to Matamata. Vast rolling farmlands and lots of sheep and cows!
We stopped at a little town of Te Aroha. Very picturesque and located at the base of Mt. Te Aroha. Looks like there would be lots of opportunity for hiking here but we didn’t have time to explore any of the trails.
When we got to Matamata, we went to the Hobbiton Movie Set and Farm. This is a huge operating sheep and beef farm. It was the filming site of the Hobbit holes scenes for Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. We spent the afternoon on a tour of the site and were provided with all of the background information about how the landscape was developed to make the site true to Tolken’s novel.
Lots of fun and we got to go in a hobbit hole!
An hour’s drive later and we were in Rotorua at our hotel for the night. Rotorua is in an active geothermal area (you can tell by the sulphur smell in the air) and we will be exploring that tomorrow.
We found a nice little Italian pizzeria downtown with an authentic wood fired oven and had one of the best pizzas we have ever had.
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