hobbitses!

11th October
Went to Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland! The area around here is full of hot springs, and scalding water shooting out of the earth, so there are a number of places like this. The one we went to was pretty special due to the sheer size of it, and varied terrain. Hard to describe, good thing I took a lot of pictures.

Get a load of that rotten egg smell. Yum.

The Lady Knox geyser was interesting in that every day, a dude chucks a load of washing powder into it to set it off. Something about surface tension, I forgot the explaination. Science!

Pow!

So after paying cash money to see all the amazing earth farts, we went for a walk in the park next to our hostel, and lo and behold, find a whole load more holes in the crust of the earth, belching out stinking hot air and bubbling mud and sulfer. Its a weird park, easy to lose a football. Also, a thermal foot pool, with lots of asians in it... ("its wonder-pool!" "Five dollar!").
After all the walking, we soaked our weary legs (J was fine, I had a blister) at the Polynesian Baths, which was capital a Awesome.

12th October
Started off the day with another walk to poke the furious earth then we decided to hit some baseballs at an homest to god americal style batting cage which we found by accident next to the museum. Ive ALWAYS wanted to have a go on one of those, ever since seeing A League Of Their Own, and I'm happy to report it was just as amazing as I had dreamed.

After that brief foray into american sports we got back on track and headed into the museum, where after finding out the admission cost was $20 we promptly headed straight back out again. Although we did meet an awesome old lady who'd lived in Rotorua for 50 years and was telling us a load of stories so it was totally worth wondering in.

Next stop, Hobbiton, YEAH!

The Matamata visitor centre. Im sensing a theme...

Tiny house

SPOILER ALERT!! Fake tree.

Non hobbit behind the bar of the green dragon inn. 

So that was nice.

After hobbiton we drove to Raglan. It was then that I realised I had inherited my mothers driving habits, namely that of supreme confidence behind the wheel followed by awful etiquette and a highly nervous disposition when in the front passenger seat. Sorry, Big J.