We left waitamo at 8.45am and went for a hike around the caves we went black water rafting in, it was cool and good to see where we went in the cave and came back out. A lot of photo taking and chatting a long the way.

After that we had the opportunity to visit hobbiton, which is where they filmed lord of the rings and the hobbit films. I'm not a massive fan of the films, but have watched a couple of them so thought I would go. This trip is all about doing things I wouldn't normally do so took the opportunity. We got on a bus with our driver who had the most amazing moustache and our guides Benji and Ryan. They took us into the village and we were free to wander round all the houses and then visit the pub where we got a free cider. :)

The houses were amazing. Apparently Peter Jackson flew over New Zealand looking for a place to film LOTR and came across the farm and approached the farmer to use his land. He wanted uninterrupted land so the one barn that you could see he changed the roof and made it into a tree. He also didn't want the trees to change in the seasons so he imported branches and leaves made in Taiwan and made real looking trees. It was really interesting and they must make an absolute fortune from it!

Anyway a good afternoon spent and then we hopped on the bus to Roturo...where my blog will continue.