There and back again a hobits... wait... a Twowanders tale... of Matamata...

Yeah that's right Ray and I have been to the Shire.  After a drive back down Highway 1 we turned off towards Matamata to go see some hobbits.  Before we got there we did stop at a wierd and interesting sculpture park, which was a conservation project for the last 20 years, going on 21 now....use to be an old quarry.  They have done a great job at restoring the area and some of the art was cool. But the flora was better than the sculptures.  Made for some cool photos for sure.
Short detour now onto Matamata, we thought we would go look at the Shire and do it the next day since it was getting late but we arrived just in time for the last tour.   OOOOHHHHHH so excited, I have been talking about seeing this since I knew we were coming to NZ, now we are here.  We have signed a clause agreement that we are not allowed to post pictures or tell about what we saw since they may be making a movie there or not in near future, hush, hush...it's no secret but hey I understand if I spent billions on these series of movies and such I would sue people for ruining it too. You will all just have to wait untill we get home to see the shire upclose.
We started out greeted by some little friends who go BAHHHHH....so cute, watched some sheep shearing and got to feed the hungry little guys who will probably be someones Christmas dinner here soon enough.  Made me a little sad I helped fatten him up.  Then on to the tour.  They have  a magnificient piece of land around the film setting, rolling hills so green, littered with sheep and stunning views.  I think that is all I am allowed to really write about that, the rest is for you to see later possibly.  Pretty cool thing to see, if your a fan, and we are.
We made our way to Matamata town, or as the sign says "Hobbiton", awesome, we found some hot spring pools and campervan site and they were water logged on the grass, so we stayed in there parking lot for the night and got to use the pools so it was ok.
Another restless night and rain and we made our way our again, Ray's sore back and all.....luckily we didn't have to go far, off to Rotorua, the most poplular tourist destination in the north it claimed and it was....