We went on an adventure!

On Monday we packed up and left Lake Taupo to head north. I really like the Lake Taupo area and would love to return one day, it's so beautiful.

Our next destination was Hobbiton! We were so excited and I'm glad to say it was fantastic! It's set on a farm, and the location was spotted by Peter Jackson when he was searching for a suitable location by helicopter. It was built for the filming of the Lord of the Rings trilogy and then rebuilt for The Hobbit. At that point the farmer came to a (no doubt mutually lucrative!) business arrangement with Peter Jackson to make it permanent and open it as a visitor attraction. They have made a lovely job of it. There are 44 hobbit houses, including Bag End of course, on a green hillside with a pond and vegetable plots, and they are so cute! They are so detailed with all the things that the occupants would require; the carpenter's house had little work bench outside with mini tools and the artist's house had paints. The gardens were planted with well tended flowers and there were little washing lines with clothes hanging from them. It was so fun going around looking at them. We finished our visit with a flagon of ale (or ginger beer) at the Green Dragon pub. I loved Hobbiton and it was a fantastic experience. My Mum would have loved it too.

After a tasty lunch at the visitor centre café - New Zealand cafés certainly know how to provide a varied array of excellent salads, pies, wraps etc., we continued on our journey north to the Coromandel Peninsula. We stopped at Cathedral Cove and went for a walk to the amazing beach with its huge arch and views of lots of sea stacks and islands; it was spectacular. The sun set while we were there and it was dark by the time we arrived in the little coastal town of Whitianga. Our cosy apartment was conveniently located in the centre, a very short walk from the beach and all the shops and cafés.