We set off early from Hamilton to Matamata to visit The Lord Of The Rings set of Hobbiton. Our tour guide was Leslie and she was quite funny! On the way there as there had been a storm the night before she kept getting out of the van to chuck huge tree branches out of the way!

The Hobbiton set is situated in a farm which was about 20 minutes from Matamata. There are 17 out of the total of 37 hobbit holes still remaining and we got to stand in the most famous of the lot Bag End! We also got to see the famous Party Tree which was really big. It was really good and it was an enjoyable morning. Good old Leslie told us a lot about the filming and explained where everything had been situated when the filming began. The tour was 2 parts and the 2nd partwas a tour around the sheep farm. We got to see a sheep shearing demonstration which was pretty different and then 2 new born lambs came trotting out and Carol got to feed one. They were so cute and only a week old!

After the tour we set off on our drive to the Waitomo Glowworm Caves. We spent the night in Otorohanga which was pretty close to the caves ready for the next morning.

In the morning we decided that we would go on the Spellbound Cave tour which featured on Planet Earth and it involved going to a lesser frequented cave with a smaller group. We had another really good tour guide who was very enthusiastic about what he did! He showed us to the caves and just before we went in he tempted some eels out of the water with goat meat and fed them. We then went into the caves equipped with our helmets with torches on! We spent about 20 minutes in the caves while Pete explained various facts about the glowworms and so our eyes could become adjusted to the dark for a better experience. Part of the caves included a raft ride through the pitch black caves which were illuminated by only the glowworms! Pete had to repeatedly ask Carol to turn her camera off as she wasn't helping the light situation however it wasn't Carol it was me!! Haha!!

After the glowworm cave we went to another cave that had stalagmites and stalagtites and some skeletons of rare spieces of birds and animals. This cave was really spectacular and well worth the visit.

After the tour we set off on our journey to our next place which was Rotorua.