The tour was prreetttyy awesome if I say so myself. Peter Jackson really knew what he was doing when he picked that place. The naturally rolling hills were so lush! Young and I enjoyed the area practically to ourselves as we were the only ones scheduled for the tour at that time.
We learned that most of the hobbit holes except for Bags End (Bilbo’s home) were just facades. That one was the only one you could actually walk into!
They were also only left as pictured due to copyright issues from the movie studio. So Young danced around the Party Tree, we hugged it, and took a ton of pictures of us being silly hobbitses. 
Also, since the Hobbiton set is actually on a working sheep farm, we got to see a sheep shearing demo and bottle-feed some lambs (c-ute!).
After arriving to Rotorua, we decided to walk around and explore the city’s famed natural geothermal vents and mudpools. We let the sulfur smell sink in and walked until we couldn’t walk anymore.
The next day we ventured to the Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland as well as Waimangu Volcanic Valley in the Taupo Volcanic Zone. The only thing that both Wai-O-Tapu and Waimangu were missing were some dinosaurs. It was some pre-historic shiz with all the steam vents and bubbling pools.
We arrived just in time to see the Lady Knox geyser erupt. 
The geysers, bubbling mud pools, and natural formations were incredibly amazing and the pictures do no justice to their greatness! At the volcanic preserve, we walked through a park which had been wiped out by a volcanic eruption, but has completely regenerated (not the right word I’m looking for).
Like the rest of our New Zealand pictures, these images can’t really convey how beautiful NZ truly is!On our second to last full day in NZ we went caving in the Waitomo Caves. We got all wet-suited up and started our “Black Labyrinth” adventure with The Legendary Black Water Rafting Co. The water was freezing, but incredibly worth it! We navigated our way though the cave, floated in inner-tubes, saw the famous glow-worms, and learned that the best way to jump off waterfalls with your tube is backwards, standing up, and with your tube on your bum! Young and I decided that this event was the best bang-for-our-buck thing we did so far and if we ever go back again we’d do the more extreme adventure caving tour they have with abseiling/crazy leaping.
Back in Auckland the next day, we drove around the all the places we had yet to see.
We went to a couple of great National Parks in the Auckland area and explored the northern suburb of Devonport (where we finally came to the revelation that we should have been going to libraries for free wi-fi all along) and later Ponsonby and K-road, supposedly where all the really hip/young kids hang out. After, contemplating how to spend the rest of our New Zealand dollars, we went back to that chocolate store in Parnell and got one last piece of that scrumptious chocolate mud-cake! The next morning, we high-tailed it out of Auckland and flew back to Sydney, where we’ve been spending our last couple of days.P.S. Young wanted me to write a joke about how Rotorua sounds like the company “Roto-Rooter” and probably smells like it too.
great post!!
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