Coromandel Peninsula, Hobbiton and a lot of lazing around

Oh yes, my children, how time flies... I'm once again highly motivated to write a blog post... so here we go. After our last update, we continued driving towards the Coromandel Peninsula. Very beautiful bays, the water even clearer than a mountain lake, and the weather was pretty good most of the time, although very windy. Here, we also visited two tourist spots, namely Cathedral Cove and Hot Water Beach. They were definitely overcrowded with tourists by New Zealand standards, so we didn't stay there for long. However, I did manage to take a quick swim in the sea.

Not much else happened during the week, we took a little stroll through the town and then prepared for the Hobbiton movie tour. And finally, the day had come... I could barely contain my excitement (sorry Kim :D) and it truly felt like a dream! It was raining and cold, but my mood couldn't be dampened on that day! :)) As the tour of the film set - including interesting facts about the filming - came to an end, we went to the Green Dragon where we got a free cider and had some food. And then it was over. We were both so tired after the tour that we just went out to eat and went to bed straight away.

The next day, we continued on to Rotorua, where we planned to stay until our first Great Walk. There were also countless activities here. Rafting, kayaking, helicopter rides, adventure forests, etc.... However, we were so exhausted from the past few weeks that, to be honest, we really just did nothing for a couple of days, except for a few minor tasks like shopping and running errands. Both of us needed that. But we spent our days in a very beautiful spot at Lake Rotorua, where it was almost always quiet. The only thing we visited in Rotorua was a Maori village. It was like an open-air museum, except that people actually live there. We took a very interesting guided tour and learned a lot about Maori traditions and culture. As a finale, there was also a small dance performance including the famous Haka! And it was truly impressive.

After that, we continued on to see the Huka Falls. For this, we drove to a small campsite (we had to shower at some point). This campsite had countless free-roaming animals, but it wasn't a farm. I have no idea what it was, but it was very cute. The Huka Falls were definitely worth it.

Then we slowly continued towards Lake Taupo. Here, we only took a short walk around the lake and today we're here at the library and for shopping, because tomorrow we're starting our first walk! Not much else has happened so far. But hey, it's our vacation, so we're allowed to do that.

Goodbye!