The site was fine but basic, however we rarely use many of the facilities. We returned to Matamata for the 10:45 tour of Hobbiton, this time costing nothing. After a discussion with the staff we decided to go directly to Shire's Rest and pick the tour up from there. That had been our original plan, 20-20 hindsight is a wonderful thing.

The farm is a way out of town and the café area had a nice lady from the UK serving in it, another case of the entire 3 generations emigrating. She did comment on how quiet she found it and that they spent the weekends finding some life elsewhere. She let us feed the pet sheep with pellets but Alex and Elizabeth both found this a little too scary.

We joined the bus tour and were taken out through some lovely farm areas to the film set. If you wanted Hobbiton you would have been disappointed but as a film set with good information on what happened, how and why, it was very good. The farmers were sworn to secrecy by the film makers which was a challenge but the financial implications were severe.

The girls were initially unimpressed by the tour but they soon thawed out. The tour guide explained how she had been given a script for the tour by New Line Cinema and there were restrictions on what they could and could not do. They, for example, cannot restore Hobbiton to its movie state nor can they dress up and reenact scenes from the movie. The whole set was meant to be destroyed after filming but the weather meant that they could not complete the job. They were set to return 6 months later, this gave the Alexander's time to renegociate the contract and agree terms for a tour with New Line. New Line now send in a team of 20 every 6 months to maintain the site. The tour guide then talked through a number of scenes, where and how it was filmed including the requirement to remove kiwi references by disguising or filming from a distance. When we reached the hobbit hils we had a good explore and the girls did really well with the walking and climbing.

After the tour we went to the sheep farm demo where they showed us how to shear a sheep, which was impressive. The girls then both bottle fed a three week old lamb and they were transfixed by this. Alex did really well and petted the lamb before deciding she was actually scared by them. Elizabeth on the other hand really loved feeding the lamb and petting it. She even managed to cope with the lamb jumping up on her and was only a little confused as to what on earth it was doing rather than scared.

We then had lunch at the Shire's Rest which was really nice and tasty before we headed off to Waitomo. I bought the girls toy lambs which were a massive hit.

We arrived at Waitomo just in time for the 4pm tour of the gloworm caves. Again both girls were really good and enjoyed it. They were initially scared of the dark, or rather Alex was but once we started seeing the gloworms they both loved it. Once we got into the boat the tunnel of light was amazing, ethereal in feeling. Both girls were transfixed and remained quiet as asked through the 20 minute boat section. The tour lasted 45 minutes which was a good job as Elizabeth had produced just as we went in.

Drove to Rotarua and Cosy Cottage site. Pretty disappointed in it by first impressions. Did the laundry and had a late dinner, we are all pretty tired.

The plan for tomorrow is to have a lie-in.