Raglan - Hamilton - Hobbiton - Tauranga - Rotorua

On Saturday, I spontaneously got a tattoo in Raglan. In cursive writing, it says 'change' over my right elbow.

The tattoo artist (Tom) did the tattoo with a hand-held needle - without a machine - and surprisingly, it hurt less than my other tattoos. After half an hour, I was done, got some Bepanthen ointment from the pharmacy, and went back to the hostel to make myself pasta salad.

On Sunday, Fritz and I continued to Hamilton. We spent half the day walking through the city center, sat by the river, and enjoyed the sun. Later, we drove for half an hour to Hamilton Gardens, which were unfortunately overcrowded and not enjoyable. So we continued our journey to Matamata, where we camped on a 'campsite' - more like the garden of an old lady - near the film set of the Lord of the Rings & Hobbit series.

On Monday, we went to Hobbiton quite early. We took a tour for $79 per person (the film set is cool to see, but definitely not worth $79). At the end of the tour, we got a free beer at the Green Dragon (even at 11 o'clock in the morning).

Afterwards, we went to Tauranga. Since the weather was so nice, we put on our swimwear, went to Mount Maunganui, and spent 2 or 3 hours at the beach.

We walked around the city center, checked out the surfer and skater shops, before heading to McLaren Park where we set up our tents and camped. In the morning, we even had a free WARM shower at the campsite - woo hoo.

Today (Tuesday), we spent our time in Rotorua at different cafes and walked around the city center.