Matamata and Waitomo

Yesterday was another full day for us. We left our hotel in Pauanui and drove south to the little town of Matamata, home of the filming set for Hobbiton in the Lord of the Rings. Our tour was so cool. We got to go right up to the doors of the Hobbit holes and walk all around the "town". It was set up so realistically, just like there really could be Hobbits living there. The scale was half human sized, except for the doors used by the actors, which made all the props super cute. Even C, who is not a huge fan of the LOTR, was enjoying himself. He said our excitement was rubbing off on him. After an amazing dinner at a Thai place in town, we had to hit the road again and make it to our accomodations for the night. I think this part was my husband's favorite place so far, as we stayed in an old military cargo plane that was the last of it's kind to leave the Vietnam war, converted into two rooms. One in the cockpit area and one in the tail. Ours was the tail end. I have to admit it was very cool.

This morning, we got up and went to a tour of the Glowworm caves. That was beautiful and peaceful. After, we headed north, stopping for lunch and we were going to go to a Kiwi reserve. But we decided to save our money, since we already get to see Kiwi at a place in Christchurch later on. So, on to Auckland we drove and now we are resting and packing up to fly to the South island in the morning. Queenstown, here we come!