I woke early, but decided to lie in this morning. The camping mat that I bought is exceptionally comfortable, especially compared to sleeping onjust the ground sheet, and even more comfortable than the mat that I left at home. I think that just for that one niht alone, it can count as a good purchase!
I eventually surfaced at around 8.30am, maybe it's because I am more acclimatised to time zone now
I decided to scout out laundry plus kitchen, and established there are power points in the kitchen, and that the laundry is $3 per load. I went to have a shower, but there was no hot water left, so they were cold, so I decided I'd have a shower in the evening instead, and went for the teenager shower - a quick bird bash and a skoosh of deodourent,
After getting some change at reception, I got ready to go out, and made it to the bus stop for Rotorua for about 10 past 10, five minutes after the bus had gone by, so I waited for the 1030h one. I got in to town about 11am as a result.
I had planned to wander around Kuirau park, as it hasfree to visit thermal spring areas, but decided I ought to sort out the hobbiton tour and my other planned activities first, I went to the i-Site (New Zealand's handy tourist information centers), and booked on to the Hobbiton tour direct, as the Great Sights one.
As I had not eaten breakfast, and it was not very convenient to do any grocery shopping and lug it all with me on the tour, I went in to the Art Cafe and ordered a large Backpackers breakfast, which consisted of 2 fried eggs, one pork sausage, 2 rashers of bacon, toast and a hash brown, plus a cup of tea, all for $14NZ, which is a pretty good price given that Rotorua is a major tourist location due to the hot springs and Mauri culture attractions.
I went down to the supermarket and established that it was open until 10pm, which left that as an option for when I came back, however I was also aware that a 25 minute bus journey would take a lot longer on foot, and the last bus back to Nhgongotaha was at 6pm - the tour getting back at 6.30pm.
On my way back up the main street, I noticed a sign showing the Waitomo glowworm caves tour for $45NZ, which seemed like a deal too good to miss, given that the ones I had found online and in other info packs were around $155NZ. I waited my turn in the tour booking center, and eventually established that it was only the caves part and that transport to Waitomo was not included - which is where the catch was!
Another option that came up though was to spend an evening at hot springs enjoying full Maori village experience and a big meal, which also happened to include glow worms caves right here in Rotorua so I decided to go for that for tomorrow evening. That leves me with plenty of time to spend in Rotorua itself tomorrow - I asked about mountain biking as had seen there was a forest that had tracks to the south, and was advised to go to Lady Jane's Ice Cream Parlour to hire a bike for $40 ... I'm glad I asked as I would never have thought to go to an ice cream shop to rent a bike!
By this time it was 12.30pm, and since the bus was at 1pm, I didn't have time to get to Karui park, so I waited outside the Hobbiton Tour shop, where I took advantage of there free wifi to upload some more photos - this photo uploading is a never ending task, but I refuse to stop taking them!
While in the tour shop, I got talking to Liza from Frankfurt, she was sorting out her portion of the hobbiton tour as had been part of a group of 3 but had gone their own ways. We chatted more at the bus stop, and discussed our plans - she is staying in New Zealand for 6 months, and has been here for 2 weeks so far - overall plan is to go to the south island and work on a farm, I have to say that New Zealand seems to be a hub point for German people!
Despite us having to be there at 1pm, the bus didn't leave till 1.40pm, but once it did we were treated by the Maori driver to plenty of local information about the areas we were travelling through.
The township Rotorua has a population of about 62,000 people, and was initially settled because it provided the Mauris with hot water they could bathe/wash clothes in, warmth from the stones, and shelter.
We went past an area thaused for Pine tree harvesting, and were advised that the pines grow better here than anywhere else in the world, due to the climate and volcanic rocks they grow in, having a harvest cycle of 20-30 years.
Ben (the driver) also advised us that once the timber prices fell, a lot of the Mauris emmigrated to Australia, where instead of being called 'Aussies' they get called 'Mauzzies'
As we got closer to the Hobbiton set, the history of the set was explained - the original setfor the Lord of the Rings movies, was made out of polystyrene, and the contract with the farmer involved the set being demolished after use, but the demolition contract was delayed due to bad weather and never seemed to happen after that, but the set became popular with tourists, so the farmer asked Universal if he was allowed to keep the set and do tours, to which they agreed, as long as no repairs were made.
Eventually, Peter Jackson decided to do the Hobit movie so they wanted to reuse the set, so the farmer agreed hapilly, on the grounds that the set would be a permanent feature - and so it came to be the tourist attraction it now is - no doubt pulling in stupid amounts of money for both Universal and the farmer!
We reached the set at 3pm, and proceeded the tour, with Kacey explaining about how some hobbit holes are larger scale than others to enable forced perspective filming. Most of them don't have anything behind the doors, as the 'inside' scenes were filmed in a studio in Wellington.
One particular story involved the man made pond that had been created - which attracted to many frogs that the actors couldn't be heard above the racket of the frogs calling, so someone had to be employed to swim in the pond gathering all the frogs up to relocate them for the duration of the filming!
The last stop on the tour of the set was the ubiquitous Green Dragon pub, where we were treated to a free drink of our choice, and there were plenty of photo opportunities. As with the other organised tours I had been on, everyone was willing to help each other be in their own photos
We made our way back to the bus, and as I looked back I noticed that the dual arch bridge and mill had no people polluting the image, so I stopped and took a photo - nobody else in the group had stopped until that moment, but everyone behind me did - this being the lead sheep in the herd seems to becoming quite the habit for me!
As the bus was going to be back at Rotorua after the last of the local busses stopped, I had asked the driver to let me off at the roundabout for Ngongotaha, which he obliged me with, and I walked up to the FourSquare to buy provisions for the next couple of days, I couldn't remember if there were pans/cups/plates provisioned, so I opted for cold sandwich makings, though I admit I couldnt resist buying tea!
It turned out this was a good decision as there is nothing in the kitchen apart from sinks, cooker/stove/fridge/microwave, and a water boiler! I might buy some disposable plates to I can have the noodles I bought earlier!
I grabbed the aforementioned shower after having some cheese/ham/lettuce rolls, and sat down to write this update - next task is to book the bus to Levin, and work out my timetable for tomorrow.