Rotarua day 1

Today started very early, with a morning flight to Rotarua. The 1 hour flight was very scenic, I saw mountain ranges with snow, lakes, beaches, Island and more! Robin and Peter slept through most of the flight. Once we arrived, we picked up the hire car & drove to Hobbiton, the site of the filming of the the hobbit and LOTR. The drive was about an hour from Rotarua, and it was raining sporadically.

We had lunch when we arrived, and them bought tickets for the tour. Because the set is on private property, you can’t just wonder around, you have to go on the tour.

We saw lots of hobbit holes, and took lots of photos. It was good to see the different scaled doors, which they used for forced respective to make the hobbits seem small and vandals seem big.

We had a bit of trouble with the pram, because it was a very muddy path and there were a few stairs. Between us though, we managed. The highlight was Bag End, Bilbos house. There was a very large oak tree on top of the hill above Bag End, which was manufactured, and had 250,000 fake leaves, each one individually painted.

At the end of the tour, we stopped at the Green Dragon Inn for a drink. There was an open fire in an old fireplace that Robin was fascinated with. I gave him a drop of apple cider to try, and his little eyes lit up! He thought it was wonderful.

After the tour ended, we headed back to Rotarua, checked into the hotel and made plans for dinner.