Kuah and I got up early on Friday and drove to Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland. It had been raining on and off as we drove. When we arrived it was just drizzling but it went from drizzle to hard rain during our walk around the hot springs. We knew it was going to rain so we brought raincoats and wore our hiking shoes. Unfortunately, we didn’t have anything to keep our legs from being soaked.
It was still a great walk. I was a bit worried about the sulfur smell but it wasn’t too strong. That may have been because it was a cooler day or because of the rain. The walk took us around to see the lake, different pools, boiling mud and craters caused by the heat. We skipped a bit at the end due to the rain but still felt like we got to experience the wonder of the hot springs.
From there we drove to Rotura where we stayed at the Pullman hotel. We decided to eat first and then relax in the room. Unfortunately, because it was still raining and I was cold I suggested we go into one of the first restaurants we saw rather than take the time to explore the food street near our hotel. This ended up in us having a mediocre pizza dinner. Definitely not worth the calories.
After dinner I was happy to go back to the hotel and luxuriate in a long hot shower. The water at our last Airbbnb was really damaging my hair and skin so I had stopped washing my hair and took super quick showers. I was so happy to get clean again and not worry about damage. The bed was comfy and we got a great night’s sleep before heading out the next day.
Although it would’ve been nice to explore Rotorua as it is a city known for Maori culture we had tickets for Hobiton so we had to leave in the morning.
I had a great time on the Hobiton tour. We arrived early and rather than having to wait around they were able to switch us to an earlier tour. The tour started with a short bus ride from the meeting point to the set. Then your guide took you through the set pointing out where scenes were filmed and sharing stories about the filming. One of the things I found interesting was the work they did to make the height difference between the actor who played Gandalf and the actor who played Bilbo Baggins seem larger. For example they had 2 different height of Hobbit home entrances. For scenes with Gandalf they used the small entrances and for scenes with Bilbo they used the larger ones.
At the end of the tour we were taken to the Green Dragon pub where we enjoyed an ice cold ginger beer. I’ve been working towards liking the taste of ginger so it was great for me.
After the tour we got back in our car and headed to Hamilton for lunch at Chick King. It is the same company that runs UAE Fried Chicken which I had in Singapore and loved. Unfortunately, the Singapore branch closed. The Chick King in Hamilton wasn’t great so I guess I’ll have to go to the UAE if I want their fried chicken. I knew it wasn’t just my taste buds and the one in Singapore turned my hands yellow from the spices and this one did not.
Once we finished lunch we headed straight to our Airbnb in Auckland. It was a nicer drive for me as there were more highways than curvy mountain roads. The scenery from the curvy mountain roads has been amazing but fighting motion sickness has not.
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