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Change of driver later, we hopped back on the bus for a couple of hours to head towards the moment David had most looked forward to: Hobbiton! This was the same day as we did the Waitomo Caves, as we left Raglan towards Rotorua, so it was a pretty heavy day. We rolled up about 3pm, to collect our tickets and have a quick look around the shop before boarding a coach to take us down through the farm towards where the set was built. We then spent time, with the guide, both learning about why that farm was chosen for the Lord of the Rings films as well as the rebuilding of the permanent structures for the Hobbit movies. We then walked around the set, admiring the detail of some of the tiny houses, which were themed for individual hobbits. A lot of the set was really well thought out, such as real smoke/steam coming out of the chimneys, as well as the worker whose job was just to walk up and down to the washing line twice a day to create a ‘natural path’ in the grass, prior to filming! We were lucky with the weather, which was getting colder and cloudy but no rain appeared as we headed along to our final stop, the Green Dragon Inn, to sample some cider, ale or beer. After our few hours in Hobbiton and our long day, we were ready to catch the bus to Rotorua, during which the driver played us some clips from Lord of the Rings to see if we could spot some of what we’d seen in real life!
The next day was our first of 3 nights in Rotorua, and we went off to Hells Gate, which had natural mud spa baths, as well as geothermal pools! On this day, the rain had arrived, but luckily we had packed our rain coats and it didn’t really dampen the experience of walking around the park, seeing the different natural pools shoot steam into the air, and cringing at the site of 90c sulphur pools! After our soggy walk, we got to go into a mud spa (outside, but the rain came in batches so it was actually not a big deal) for 20 minutes, before having unlimited time in a ‘sulphur spa’, which was around 40c. This was actually an ideal day to do the sulphur spa, as it was pretty cold and rainy, which made the heat of the spa bearable! On a hot day it would have been impossible to get in. Unfortunately, like the whole of Rotorua, which has a distinct aroma, the sulphur pool also made us smell like rotten eggs, and we had to immediately shower when we returned and wash our clothes and muddy swimming things! To be fair, we wouldn’t have stood out too much, as like I said the whole town had the smell of rotten eggs due to the geothermal pools around the area, but still! Luckily for us, we did our activities on this day, as the following day featured heavy rain for the whole day, which would have made it unpleasant to say the least to do these activities! The tour after us (another bus follows around 2 or so days behind) nearly had their Hobbiton trip cancelled due to the rain! We finished our time in Rotorua with a trip to see Avengers: Infinity War! Definitely a few days that David enjoyed, including Marvel and Lord of the Rings!
Highlights: Geothermal spa and mud pool, hopping off of the bus for a few days and chilling out!
Accomodation: YHA Rotorua
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