Jan 1: Hobbits & Thermal Pools...not together.

This was a hit the road early day, so thankfully our New Year's Eve celebrations didn't go too late.  We had to be in Matamata, home of the Hobbiton Movie Set & Farm Tour, in time for our 11:05am tour, so we peaced out of Auckland at 8am to give ourselves plenty of time.

The tour of Hobbiton was AMAZING!!  The Alexander Family, who owns the farm that was the setting for The Shire and Hobbiton in the Lord of the Rings movies, got permission to run tours through the set.  Apparently, this is the only tour in the WORLD of an active movie set.  We took the tour at the perfect time as they have been working on and expanding the set in anticipation of the filming of The Hobbit which will done in two movies and will start filming here in New Zealand in the near future.  Sadly, as it's a working movie set, we have to sign a confidentiality agreement saying that we won't post any pictures of the tour anywhere - blogs, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube - or else Sir Peter Jackson has the right to hunt you down and kill you.  I can, however, show them to you in person, so feel free to stop by for a visit.  The only picture I can show you is one of the sign, so here you go.

After this phenomenal tour for LOTR fans (not fanatics - we learned from our tour guide that there is a difference and we defeinitely fall in the fans category) and a lunch of fish and chips (the first of many), we drove on to Rotorua, the thermal and Maori heartland of New Zealand.  We went directly to Waiotapu Thermal Park to see the variety of hot thermal pools that exist in Rotorua.  There are gabillions of thermal springs and pools running above and below the ground here. Kinda scary!  But geothermal power heats a big part of the local area, so that's a bonus.

Mijin and Todd check to see if this water is hot.

Seriously?  This is a geyser?

  

Let me check one!  Is this one hot?

Why is this one fluorescent green?

From the park, Katie, Jim, Mijin, Todd and I rejoined Vanessa, Graham, Elena, and Lorena who had skipped the thermal park to head directly to a lovely spot where a thermal river (ie HOT) meets a cold river.  It's perfection to sit right between where the rivers meet...and it's a little weird.  Your left side can be freezing and your right side can be hot at the same time. 

picture courtesy of K. Hershey

Sometimes it gets hot fast...picture courtesy of K. Hershey

Everyone found their sweet spot, and we just hung out getting wrinkled and enjoying a free thermal wonderland.