After the leftover spaghetti for breakfast we first buried Celine’s plan to go hiking in the Tongariro. That was because the weather wasn’t suitable and also, the guide of those tours was not to be found… We used the ‘saved’ time to get moving towards Rotorua.
Great Lake Taupo
After some truly worthwhile photo stops we found ourselves in Taupo. Lake Taupo is the biggest one in New Zealand and actually is just one big volcano crater.
He was the one I look down on while doing my skydive. 🙂
That isn’t me, my camera is just able to zoom. 😉
‘Bad weather in the Tongariro”
New Zealand gave us some hard-out women. 🙂
We only wanted to have a short break at the promenade in Taupo and soon our way led us to the next attraction, the Huka Falls. My words couldn’t fall more sensational than the pictures:
For from Taupo to Rotorua thermal activity starts showing, we already saw some steam coming from the ground… In the park ‘Craters of the Moon’ you had to pay some admission, but on the other hand there was quite someting in store.
Look at that: An Oli. 😀
Craters of the Moon.
It was a little early to home to Rotorua, so we took a detour over Matamata. As one knows, this is the place where the movie set ‘Hobbiton’ from the Lord of the Rings is situated. Though, we were somewhat poorly informed and would like to let you share in to our misconception: Hobbiton lies quite some way outside of Matamata. But you can book many shuttles from Matamata and the bigger tourist cities around.
So we arrived at the actual movie set and had to realise the next truth: Hobbiton is only accessible through a guided tour. So no driving there some night and taking some pics. Nothing of that, it costs 75 dollars and as we arrived, the last tour was sold out already. We could have known… 🙂
We set the visit for another day, as we would pass by Matamata some more times. These bling ends are no loss by far, as long as long as you can get some impressions along the way. And that was not hard at all with the sunset and all beautiful views…
The i-Site is the number one address for tourists. In Matamata it has some especially unique style to it…
As the sun sun kept on shining, we went for another desitnation: Tauranga. That is a bigger city at the coast, topped off with Mount Manganui.
Hobbiton lies somewhere over there…
Mount Manganui in the light of the setting sun.
Having arrived in Rotorua, we prepared our dinner in the rather sparsely equipped hostel kitchen and after long talks got the sleep we deserved…
On this day we saw: Lake Taupo, the Huka Falls, ‘Craters of the Moon’, Matamata, the place where guided tours take off to Hobbiton, unparalleled views of a far green country around Matamata and Tauranga (Mount Manganui)…
