Sujata and I decide to take an overnight trip to visit Rotorua, and I discover she has boundless energy. Along the way, we take in Hobbiton, a Maori village built for tourists, and view the local thermic activity before enjoying the town of Rotorua itself. We then later find an authentic, living Maori village before finally seeking out dinner. We cap off the night by taking a dip in the natural, mineral, thermic pool outside our motel room. I am still in awe of how much we squeezed into one day.

Activities:

• Early rise at 5. Depart Auckland via car by 6:30 to miss the rush hour traffic.
• First stop: Matamata, the home of Hobbiton!

• Hobbiton:
• Defies my ability to describe it. Is everything you see in the moves and then some. Breathtaking to behold in person. You simply cannot believe the work that went into building this place.
• Hobbiton exists on a large farm that some local Kiwis own. There is fencing around it to keep out the local sheep. While they still do farm business, a large part of their income now comes from sales from these tours. Totally worth it.
• The tour through Hobbiton ends with a drink at the Green Dragon in. It is a fully realized version of the inn seen in the movies, and not only serves locally brewed beer, but food as well. They offer everybody one drink for free, though I manage to score two ;) Among the choices of beer are an amber, a stout, and a dry cider ranging from 3.4% to 5% ABV. The stout and cider are both really, really good. I would totally chill here nightly.

This is just the visitor's center where you take the bus to get to the farm to get to Hobbiton

Me and my boy Gollum

As you enter Hobbiton, you are greeted with this view. Yes, it all really exists!

Visiting my Aunt in her hobbity home

Enjoying a hobbit sized pint inside the Green Dragon by the fire ;)

• Te Puia Maori Village:
• Touristy, but worth a visit for the fantastic views of volcanic thermal activity alone
• Among its natural features are thermally heated rocks (amazing to sit on - I could've slept there), a Maori cooking oven that relies on the thermal heat, a geyser, and bubbling mud pits (exceedingly dangerous)
• There is also an enclosed exhibit featuring the large nocturnal Kiwi bird, but little dude was asleep when we entered
• The Maori village itself featured a cultural show in their traditional meeting hall. You could opt to spend the evening having dinner there, where they cooked using the thermally-heated oven, but we decided to press on
• The local artwork they sold there was quite beautiful

Still capture of the geyser. The smell of sulfur in the air is strong.

Thermic activity and natural beauty from afar

You can spy the hotel on the grounds at Te Puia

Still, it's quite lovely, especially with the pools

• Rotorua:
• This city itself it worth at least a 3 day trip, just to enjoy the city alone. It is indescribably charming and boost more outdoor, fun activities than I can possibly list. There is great food and great booze, and a vibrant night life that makes the excursion quite fun.
• There are beautiful Victorian gardens and mineral pools abound. There is even a wonderful local museum on the grounds to explore. At least I hear it's wonderful on the inside, and that you should opt for a half day excursion and a guided tour. The outside architecture was beautiful in its own right, but made me think it was possibly Dutch?

Hopefully, someday soon I will get a chance to revisit this museum

• Malfroy Motel:
• Yes, I am pausing to describe the place I stayed. It was that unique to me.
• The local "motels" there are above and beyond what a motel is in the U.S. They are more akin to 4 star hotel rooms here, and feature an incredible array of amenities for a fraction of the price.
• The Malfroy was run by the sweetest NZ couple. They had fantastic tips on exactly where to go and what to do! (They are reason we even found the living Maori village.) The couple took 30 minutes to give us a thorough tour of the grounds there, including the two pools (one thermally supplied with the local mineral water and regulated down to 45C, the other artificial and chlorinated and regulated to 32C). The shower was even some fancy thing from China and featured 12 shower heads, which was actually much less exciting once you tried it. Single shower head for the win!
• Ohinemutu (living Maori village):
• On the tip we received, we headed out to discover this little gem of a place. Ohinemutu is called a living village because Maori people actually live there and it is not designed for tourist visits. That being said, they did have a shop that sold extremely local wares for those who did drop by to visit. For being right on the edge of town, it is strangely isolated, which gives the place a wonderful feel to it.
• The people we ran into were extremely friendly, although I could say this about virtually everybody in NZ. It is the NZ way.
• There was tons of thermic activity there, too. Parts of their culture seem built around this feature. There were also some great ocean views.
• There was a church there with a stained glass window Jesus that was depicted in such a way that as you looked out at him, it appeared as though he was "walking on water," due to the placement and the ocean directly outside.

A real Maori village! You can spy several thermal pools and the traditional style of architecture.

This is the isolated view from the village out over the water. Just beautiful.

• Tutanekai Street:
• I dub this section of street between Whakaue Street and Pukaki Street the "Upper Crust Food District." On tip, we got that the block directly south of it was also good, that the upper crust part was the way to go. So that was what we did.
• It featured fine dining (one of Rotorua's most famous restaurants is there), two local brewpubs, and cuisine of every other imaginable type. It is also cordoned off from vehicular traffic, so it made it fun to peruse and jump between restaurants at will.
• Suji opted for Thai, so that's where we made our way to dinner (she did pay for the motel, after all, the least I could do was buy dinner!). After that, I popped into one restaurant and ordered an Eton mess for takeaway (featured beautiful local fruit - one of the best desserts I've ever eaten) and then across the road into a brewpub for some beer takeaway (yes, it was cold, yes you can get it bottled and capped fresh off the taps, yes, Max would have been in heaven). I carried my loot back to the hotel room to finish off the night.

And that's how you do a nightcap

• Mineral pools:
• Fortunately, we didn't have to pay extra to go to a public mineral pool. Our motel room featured two private ones, and I carried the Eton mess and the beer and we went out and enjoyed them. The mineral pools are said to be quite therapeutic, especially as you use them more and more. I bet :)
• Oh my... What a glorious night!