Day 8- November 10th

Another fairly awesome day. Woke up from a great nights sleep at kiwipaka lodge, where we managed to get a spacious four bed dorm to ourselves. We left Waitomo at 9.30 which meant we actually got a lie in for a change (8am is considered late around here.)

After only 10 minutes driving, we made a brief stop to 'stretch our legs' which was a bit strange. But we made the 30-45 minute hike up to the caves where we had actually been climbing the day before. Standing on a balcony in the semi darkness, looking down on the rapids that thundered 100m below us made me feel very small. 

Next stop, Hobbitom. This was truly a magical experience if you'd pardon the pun. Even for someone who has only seen the lord of the rings a long time ago, and I'm not even sure if I've seen the hobbit, I loved the quaint feel of the place, the tiny letterboxes, miniature gardening tools, and the teeny weeny chess set on a child-size garden table. Maybe it's because it made me feel at home.

Am I tall yet?

You had to admire the intricate details of the set. The whole thing took 3 years to build because of the perfectionist nature of the director, Peter Jackson. Apparently, somewhere in Tolkien's trilogy, there is a line about little hobbits picking plums from the plum trees in Hobbitom. However, Jackson knew that the plum trees in New Zealand grew much too tall for a hobbit child to reach. So what he did was he planted apple and pear tree, stripped them of their leaves and fruits and then wired on individual plum leaves and fruits. Thes trees featured in the film for a whole 5 seconds.

Just pickin' some plums

A hobbit hole amongst the beautifully kept gardens

Hobbit holes are of varying sizes. Basically those that were film sets used by actors playing hobbits are built at 90 per cent of true scale,  while the ones used in scenes featuring Ian McKellen are just 60 per cent to scale so Gandalf looks much bigger.

As demonstrated

Our final stop was the green dragon inn for a complimentary ale or ginger beer. It was honestly the cosiest little place, with cracked leather armchairs in front of two little fires  roaring at each end of the pub. 

There's definitely a circular theme going on 

After Hobbiton, a shuttle bus took us back to Rotorua. This time, we weren't actually staying in the Kiwi Experience
recommended accommodation. We had booked a different hostel as we needed 3 nights, and this one was highly recommended on Hostelworld (hostelworld actually has a great iPhone app which makes booking any hostel super easy, and even keeps a record of your bookings). It was a 12 minute walk away from where the bus dropped us, which feels like a VERY long way when you're carrying a 15+kg back pack, - rucksack and a shopping bag. When we turned the corner and came face to face with Spa Lodge, our step faltered a little. Was this really the right place? I must admit, I was a little nervous, as it was me who had found and booked the place so I felt responsible if it was below average. It looked a bit  

dodgy.

However, any doubts were immediately swept away by the enthusiastic and hyper-friendly owner, who welcomed us with a full itinerary of what to do in Rotorua, and an extensive tour of the property, including its very own tiny thermal hot pool. It was extremely homely compared to hostel like Base and Nomads,  which work on a more industrial level and can't afford to be so personal.

We sorted out our stuff at the hostel, then went out for our evening Maori experience. The Maoris are the native New Zealand people, and one particular family that moved to the area decided to allow tourists into their village in order to educate them on Maori traditions in order to preserve their culture. It was a very enjoyable evening but I feel like it had suffered what all things  suffer when they become tourist attractions- it had lost its authenticity somewhat.

Four or five (small) bus loads of tourists arrived at the Maori village, and from each bus, one male was chosen as 'chief' of his family (his bus group). On entering the village, the tourists gathered around a large, court yard area, whilst the chiefs stood before us. The Maori warriors arrived on a long, wooden canoe, and proceeded to perform an intimidating war dance, coming right up close to the faces of our chiefs. We weren't allowed to smile or laugh, even though they did look quite funny, with bulging eyes at protruding tongues. The tradition purpose of this dance was to ensure that any visitor to their village had peaceful intentions, and would not pick up his weapon if he became scared.

After these rituals were carried out, we entered the central part of the village via 3 small path ways. We were then split into smaller groups, and moved around the village, hearing different Maoris talk about their, history, music, facial and body tattoos, and of course the famous Haka.
I probably speak for most people when I say that highlight of the evening was the delicious Hangi buffet.
Hangi refers to the method of cooking the food; a pit in the ground is lined with red hot rocks, crates of meat are then placed inside with crates of vegetable on top, and then the whole apparatus is covered with material (this particular one uses potato sacks), and left to cook. The evening ended with a traditional song, and then we were all shipped home in our various buses.
https://youtu.be/D5PeeNohvow