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A quick breakfast at the nice cottage before we leave. |
| Saying goodbye to our host, Sally. |
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We weren't sure where to have a quick brunch, so we stopped by the side of the road outside Thames. We need not have worried as there were many marked resting spots and scenic lookouts ahead. |
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This is outside Matamata. We knew the Hobbiton tours are run out of Matamata, so the secret location used in the LOTR films is somewhere not too far from here, but you really need to go on one of the tours to get there. The upcoming Hobbit movie will also be filmed there. We drove through Matamata town but didn't see a single sign associating the itself with hobbits, so we drove on. |
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| When we got to Rotorua, we saw a big plume of smoke in the distance. It came from Kuirau Park, which has many geothermal vents. |
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We took a few photos but didn't hang around too long. |
| Dinner was at Mitai Maori village. |
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The blessing of the kumara potato. |
| Before dinner, there was a performance by the Mitai warriors and women. The warriors rowed to the village on a boat. |
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The blowing of a conch shell summons the villagers to gather quickly. |
| The Mitai chief explained many things about Maori culture. There were more Maori words than I could remember in one night. |
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A Mitai warrior doing the Ka Mate haka, made famous internationally by the All Blacks (the national rugby team). |
| Back to Day 4 <<< | >>> Day 6: Queenstown |