Listened to the rain on the roof all night and so decided to have a bit of a sleep in. When we arose and peeked out the curtains it was to a very grey world - low cloud, drizzly and grey. Packed up and left on the dot of 10am and drove up to Cambridge. Only light drizzle so left the umbrellas in the car and wandered the main street under the cover of the awnings. Nice little town with a good mix of shops and cafes, few antique stores and a couple of real estate agents. Probably looking at a million and half for my ideal property which would include a nice house, a few stables and a few acres for a couple of the thoroughbreds prevalent in these parts. Stopped in a trendy cafe (one where you get your freshly pressed juice in one of those jars with a handle) for a cuppa but it looked so nice we ended up having early lunch of yummy toasted bagels.
Made our way out of Cambridge and use the GPS to travel the very pretty back roads of Cambridge and Matamata to get to the Shire's Rest Cafe near Hobbiton. Although still very overcast it had got a bit lighter and the drizzle finally stopped. A bit early for our tour so checked out the gift shop and had our cuppa. I had booked online and no tickets for the 2 pm tour had sold a few days ago but people miraculously appeared from nowhere and we ended up having a nearly full coach which picked us up from the Cafe and drove across the road and into the farm and along the road the NZ army kindly built for Peter Jackson into the private farm on which the Hobbiton set remains.
It was absolutely gorgeous. Much better than I was expecting. I guess I had assumed it would be starting to look run down as filming finished a few years ago now but it's a big operation (the lines of tour coaches should have told me so) and they have a full team of maintenance people and gardeners etc employed to keep the place looking like hobbits still there. We took LOTS of photos and the plan is to watch the movies again as soon as possible so we can work out which hobbit hole is which and whether all the background detail actually is apparent in the final film - they even sprayed fake lichen on the fence posts to give them an aged effect!!
Followed the paths through the little town, past Bag End and past the party field and the party field and eventually made our way down to the Green Dragon which is actually now a real pub with real drinks and food and chairs and tables and roaring fires. Found a few bits of hobbit costume such as hats and waistcoats and drank our cider and ginger beer out of pottery mugs like good little hobbits. A final chance for a few photos across the Bywater before hopping back on the bus and back to the real world.
Hopped back into the car and headed for Rotorua and the weather immediately clouded over and started raining again. The weather gods were definitely with us today! At one stage it got very cloudy and foggy but then we started descending towards the lake and below cloud level and things cleared up a bit. Found our motel along the main drag of motels in Fenton Street and the girls got their WiFi fix. Later headed out to The Pizza Library for dinner - very funky pizzeria with bookcases along the walls and interesting varieties of pizzas - my half was 'The Hunger Games' and had venison and feta cheese on it. Back to the motel for a spa in our private spa courtyard before bed.
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