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It's hard to believe how much happened in the space of about four days. From the moment we left Auckland we were thrown straight into activities. Our first stop was the Coromandel Peninsula, where we stayed near hot water beach. We spent the afternoon walking out to Cathedral Cove with its iconic arch and white sand beaches. In the evening we went down to hot water beach to dig our own pool during low tide. It proved more difficult than expected as the water was not just hot but boiling in places.
The next day we moved on to Waitomo. There is very little to do here but visit their famous caves, but it is absolutely worth it. We shelled out a considerable amount of money but in return were taken on an incredible three hour adventure involving jumping off waterfalls and floating in the dark under ceilings covered in beautiful green glow worms.
On day three we headed to Rotorura, stopping at the Hobbiton movie set on the way. Because it's been a particularly dry summer down here the difference between the surrounding farmland and the beautifully kept hobbiton was even more noticeable. The attention to detail that went into making the set as realistic as possible is really astounding. Every hobbit hole has a different theme surrounding it and some even have smoke coming out of the chimneys.
That evening we did an overnight stay at the Tamaka Maori village. We spent the afternoon learning the meanings behind the carvings in our sleeping hut and being taught some traditional games and songs, before going over to a recreated village along with several other tour groups. At each hut they taught us about different traditional aspects of Maori culture and gave us an opportunity to try some of the activities ourselves. We were then treated to some performances, including a Maori haka, before sitting down to an all you can eat hangi (a meal cooked in a hole in the ground). We spent the rest of the evening sitting in the hot tubs and round a bonfire talking with our Maori guides before heading back to the best night's sleep we've had so far!
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