the day my dream came true, one does not simply walk into Hobbiton and not take heaps and heaps of pictures. The promise of going to Mata Mata and going on the Hobbiton tour was honestly one of the main reasons I wanted to go on the PacRim trip. The day started out with us leaving Rotarua behind and driving to Mata Mata. Along the way, a few people wanted to go zorbing, which is being put in a big plastic ball and being rolled down a hill. I was going to do it, but the prices were a bit too high for my liking...I enjoyed watching my team members rolling down the hill though. So after that we FINALLY arrived!!! it was more beautiful than I could have ever imagined...and also more small. walking around felt so surreal, like it couldn't be real, no way was I in THE Hobbiton! also a HUGE shout out to Chelsea for offering to take pictures of me when I asked. Usually I'm not the biggest fan of having just me in a picture, but for this trip I thought "what the heck! I'm going to take as many pictures as I want!" she was a great sport. we had an awesome tour guide for our group and she informed us on several behind the scene facts. at the end of our tour, we were able to go into the Green Dragon pub and drink complimentary (non-alcoholic) ginger beer. all in all, it was a great tour and I would really recommend it for anyone who is an LOTR fan. after the tour ended, we headed into Raglan to stay at another hostile called Karioi...and holy hippie-ville!!! it would be a pretty cool place if you are going by yourself or with one other person, but as a large group, it was just kind of stressful. there were other people there and I would have loved talking to them but being in a large group like ours, I didnt really feel the need to be around even more people. one interesting thing was that they did not lock their doors! it made all of us a bit nervous since we had our laptops and what not, but that was just how things were run up there, based on the trust system. finished the day with fish n chips by the beach!
