On our way back to Auckland from stinky Rotorua we went to Matamata, which is also known as Hobbiton now as it was the site for the Shire in the Lord of the Rings.We booked onto a tour at 11am as the set where they filmed the Shire scenes for the film is set on a private sheep farm in the middle of nowhere. We joined our group out and after 20mins we were at the farm and set about making our way to the set. Wow this place is set in some gorgeous countryside and...

Eggs! Not fresh eggs, but rotten as hell eggs everywhere! That basically sums up our experience of Rotorua so thanks for reading this blog entry.OK, we'll flesh it out a bit more just for you :)After our brill time in Taupo (pronounced Taw-po) we headed north towards Rotorua which is the most geothermal active area in New Zealand which means there are lots of hot pools, geysers, sulphur etc, and unfortunately with this comes the dreaded smell of rotten eggs fro...

It took us just over five hours to drive to Taupo through some wicked scenery but we (and the car) made it in one piece. The lake here is HUUUUGE and apparently you could fit the whole of Singapore into it and still have room to spare for a Nissan Sunny, oh no we still need it for now so Auckland harbour will have to do. Seriously though this part of the world is stunning and we both have totally fallen in love with Taupo. All the locals are really friendly an...

Monday didn't exactly go to plan. Not a great start is it.....Basically, we booked a half day Lord of the Rings tour at the visitors centre on Saturday and they were supposed to pick us up from our hotel at 8:25am this morning. Being the organized tykes we are, we were outside in the freezing cold waiting at 8:15am, but by 8:45 there was still no sign so we rang the visitor centre who confirmed we had the right day so they rang the tour company to check. Guess...

We've been in Wellington a couple of days now and OH MY GOD, it doesn't stop raining or howling a gale here! I know they call it Windy Wellington but seriously we never imagined it would be like this. If it was raining and blowing a gale like it is here back in the UK, you'd have severe weather warnings out, but here it just seems to be the norm.Anyway, Wellington. Apart from the weather it seems like a really nice place and is the capital city of New Zealand....