I had to get up at 6.30 this morning to get picked up for the Hobbiton tour I had booked onto, which was a bit difficult after the partying from the days before. I was thinking why on earth did I decide to go given I've only watched 45 minutes of Lord of the Rings, but I'm glad I went, although it was quite expensive- tickets for a tour are $75 but I had to pay $110 to go from Rotorua, which seemed a bit steep for an hour on a coach with lots of other people. Apparently the hobbit post boxes are decorated in a manner s that you can tell the occupation of the resident, and we got a complimentary drink in the bar at the end. Apparently they have hosted weddings there- you'd have to be a massive fan/ geek to have your wedding there!

Alice had put the idea of a McDonalds in m head, so I went to get a McKiwi burger (with beetroot, egg and cheese) and cokes for Thibault and Jonathon- our car next door neighbours.

We eventually got away in the car, and made a bit of a detour to go via Okahune because Alice had read about it in the Lonely Planet that it had a giant carrot statue and it was the most hugged thing in New Zealand. Alice got some noodles from a takeaway and we tried the chocolate brownie tip top ice creams- very yummy.

We continued on, and Alice noticed there was Lake Alice near to Palmerston North, so we tried to park there to camp but we weren't really sure how to park close to it, so drove back to a town called Bulls.