Day seven in New Zealand, and after leaving Northland we headed up into the Coromandel Peninsular, which is where many Aucklander's go for their summer holidays. It's also where Captain Cook chilled out in the bay whilst watching Mercury eclipse the sun in the 18th century, hence the name Mercury Bay.

We took the scenic route around the coastline, which took longer than we expected. We really had no idea New Zealand was so hilly, though the spaceship seems to handle it OK. The drive was nice though the towns on the way were pretty quiet, so we decided to keep moving until Whitiangi, which is a small town near Cook's Beach, Hot Water Beach and Cathedral Cove.

Cook's Beach is where Cook anchored and watched the Mercury Eclipse, and it's a really picturesque village, though we think the average age there is about 75. Cathedral Cove is a beach and rock formation, which can be reached after a 45 minute trek, which we soon realised is not best done in jeans, as the weather here changes so quickly. Pretty much every day we've had both rain and grey clouds, and then scorching sunshine straight after. Hot Water Beach is a beach which has geothermal activity underneath, so each day two hours either side of low tide you can dig a hole down a couple of feet and have your own thermal bath.

We arrived about an hour and a half before low tide, to find the Germans already had their towels down and had claimed the best spot, though we followed the steam and found that if we dug about five inches on a certain spot we got hot water, so hot in fact that it burnt our feet (we were trying to save the four bucks it cost to hire a shovel, times are hard!). We left around the time the old German women got down into their swimmers and the German lads stripped to their boxers.

Next we drove on to Rotorua, which is the place where the earth's crust is at it's thinnest, hence has loads of thermals, geysers and mudpools. On the way though we realised that about an hours drive away was Matamata, also known as Hobbiton, or the Shire. Yes this is the place where they filmed the hobbit village in Lord of the Rings, and they now do tours. Definitely worth a quick detour.

Basically the director Peter Jackson flew over a lot of New Zealand looking for the perfect site, and asked this farmer if he could use his land. The farmer agreed, and after filming, when they came to knocking down the set, it rained non-stop for days, so they left half the set. After a while the farmer had so many requests to see the set that he started tours.

We were a bit dubious, as we'd heard some bad things, but it was definitely worth the visit. You can only go on organised tours, as it's still a working farm, so we got picked up and driven through the sheep farm to the set. From the set you can only see one man-made farm house, and due to the big lake, rolling hills and the huge oak tree (the party tree) it made it the perfect location for the film.

As you arrive on the set there are about ten hobbit homes still in view, though sadly they'd taken half of the houses away so it's just the shell left, but you do get to visit Bag End (which is where Bilbo Baggins lived), see the big tree where they sat and smoked their pipes, the party field where they had Bilbo's birthday, and the lake that they built a polystyrene bridge over (the tour guide even slipped us a bit of the bridge on the sly, though we doubt it's authentic). The tour guides also do all the cheesy photo's for you, going in and out of Bag End, hugging the party tree, you get the idea. A very cool trip for fans of the film.

After the detour we carried on to Rotorua to visit Te Puia, one of the thermal parks which has geysers and mudpools, as well as a Mauri cultural centre. As you reach Rotorua the sulphur smell hits you, and we could pretty much smell it for the next whole day, as our camp site was only about a mile from the park. The park is home to the Pohutu Geyser, which can erupt to a height of about 30 metres, though we think we must have gone on an off day.

It also has a kiwi sanctuary, so we got to see a real live kiwi, which is actually a bit of a feat it seems as not only are they nocturnal birds (flightless birds, which have more in common with mammals), but they're also killed by dogs, cats, stoats, possums, and just about everything else that is bigger than them. Luckily for us the park turns out the lights in the day time and has light at night, so you can see them shuffling around searching the dirt for worms and food. They're quite funny looking, as they have huge butts and long beaks, though there is not too many of them left sadly after Europeans introduced animals for the fur trade, and household pets.

The park also has a Maori village, where you can watch stories of their history performed by song and dance. After the welcome ceremony, where they pick someone from the crowd to go rub noses with one of the Maori women, the crowd follows the performers into the meeting house, where you have to remove your shoes. The performance then begins with songs and dance, including the women playing these strange instruments which are effectively big cotton balls on string, and a stick dance where you hit and swap your partners sticks. They also performed their local haka, which makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end, as it's so powerful and the fellas put everything into it. At the end of it their chests were bright red from slapping themselves. The whole thing is really powerful, and something hopefully we'll see more of before we leave, as each tribe has different variations.

After a few pictures of us with Maori fellas with their tongues out, we left and drove on to Gisborne, the first place where Captain Cook set foot on New Zealand and claimed it for George the Third. As such we were expecting a lot, but unfortunately they've built a big timber yard right next to the monument, and there's not even a visitor centre to explain the story. Disappointed, we consoled ourselves with the realisation that we are in wine country, Hawkes Bay (on the East Coast), so at least we won't go thirsty!