Thanks to jet lag, we woke up absurdly early. Like between 5 and 6 AM. We tried to go back to sleep, but it wasn't going to happen. We ended up getting ready and going down for breakfast around 7. Breakfast was pretty good. Kaylea finished here plate of eggs benedict with smoked salmon. When the waitress stopped by to take the plate away, she asked how to we liked it. Kaylea looked at the empty plate and very jokingly said "oh I did not like it." The waitress was so surprised and slightly horrified while asking "Really??" Apparently she had not heard that joke before. Kaylea had to quickly explained that she was joking and it was very good, as the food was all gone. That would not be the last awkward interaction at this hotel. While checking out, Aaron chose to pay in USD with his credit card. The desk clerk immediately commented. "40 US dollars so Trump can build his wall." When she could not interpret our reaction as for or against the wall, she began to backpedal. It was a very uncomfortable moment.
We loaded up the car and got on the road. It would be a 2 hour trip to our destination, not including look out points and potty breaks. The views were impressive and Aaron finally got comfortable driving on the left side of the road.
We made it to Hobbiton about an hour and a half early. While waiting for our time slot, we went to the iSite information center to try to get tickets to the Waitomo glow worm caves. The only slots left were too early in the day. We wouldn't be able to make the 2 hour drive from Hobbiton, so we decided that we'd go Zorbing in Rotorua instead.
It was still pretty early when we finished at the iSite, so we hung out in the cafe and gift shop while avoiding the rain. The shop had tons of Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit paraphernalia. We flipped through filming location books until our time slot was called. Then we boarded a bus that that drove us out to the movie set.
The movie set has over 40 hobbit holes, multiple gardens, and a cafe. Our guide took the group along a winding path and shared facts and fun stories about the filming and the building of the set. Many selfies were taken. We finished up the tour at the Green Dragon with beer, biscuits, and a meat pie. Apparently cookies are biscuits and biscuits are scones. The meat pie was delicious.
During the tour, we met a girl named Jess. She was backpacking across New Zealand for the first leg of her 6 month world tour. We talked about plans for New Zealand, and travel in general. When we told her we were headed to Rotorua next, she asked if she could tag along. We told her it was cool as long as she was ok with us running a few errands and rolling down a huge hill in a plastic ball (aka Zorbing). A quick stop in to town for her stuff, and we were on our way. We had to play a little luggage Tetris, but we managed to squeeze her and her full backpacking gear into our tiny rental car.
We drove up on the Zorbing place right as they were about to close. Our only options were to roll down the plastic ball filled with water. We all chose to go down the zig-zag course. Jess seemed a little nervous, but she decided to go for it. We dawned our bathing suites, signed our wavers, and hopped in to the back of a pretty dinky looking van to take us to the top of a steep hill. Aaron went first. The ride was a blast, but lasted less than a minute. He tried to use the GoPro, but he really only ended up with a 30 second video of his feet in a plastic ball. He had forgotten the staff's recommendation to point the camera at himself. He also managed to miss almost all of Kaylea's roll down the hill. Honestly though it's pretty hard to tell who's in the big plastic ball. A little clever editing, and nobody will tell the difference.
After Zorbing it up, it was only a few more minutes to get to Rotorua. We dropped Jess off in the rain near some hostels. She had to find a place to sleep for the night. As much fun as we had backpacking across Europe, that's one thing we never really did. We always had a place to sleep for the night at least a few days before we arrived in a city.
After dropping Jess off, we made our way to our Air B&B. As we neared out destination, we we could see steam from the famed geyser. Due to the geothermal activity, the whole town smells funky. The sulfur tends to create a rotten egg smell and our Air B&B was VERY close to the geothermal park.
We arrived at the address. Our accommodations was a small studio in our host's back yard. The studio was modern and well decorated. It had a small kitchenette and a dining nook surrounded by windows over looking lush yard and garden on three sides. Basically it was perfect.
After a quick shower, we went back to the city center for dinner. We decided on an Indian food restaurant. It was pretty good, but were so sleepy that we ate quickly and went back to the studio.
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