Day five - Matamata (aka Hobbiton) / Rotorua, New Zealand

December 15 - Today we drove down to Matamata, and we took the tour of Hobbiton. That was a really great tour!! It was an absolutely beautiful ranch, just breathtaking. Definitely one of the most memorable parts of the entire trip. The whole area was just rolling green hills, with tons of sheep and lambs all over the place. Afterwards we drove down to Rotorua, which is full of geothermal activity - hot springs, hot mud pools, geysers, etc. And you have to understand, this place doesn't have just a hot pool here and there, I mean, there is steam coming out of the drains, in the middle of parks are just clouds of steam because of the pools, and I bought a great postcard which shows an arial view of the town, which shows the town with steam coming out between what seems to be every building. It is one of the coolest, or I should say HOTTEST, cities I've ever been to!