June 29-July 1

George here (and Josh too).  We left Waitomo around 10:00—we are not moving at a rapid speed in the mornings at this point-- and headed towards the Alexander Farm (also known as Hobbiton) used in the 3 Lord of the Rings and 2 Hobbit films. 

But in one of the brochures I was reading, I saw that there was a tribute to Tim and Neil Finn [two of my favorite musicians] in their hometown of Te Awamutu.  So we found the museum there and spent about 30 minutes reading news clips, listening to music on albums (I think Josh was pretty amazed music could be made that way), and watching old family videos of the Finn Family.

Once I had my fix, we headed to Hobbiton.  We got there in time for a 12:20 tour and loaded the bus with 25 or 30 other tourists. 

(from Josh)- We started off seeing some small Hobbit holes, then on our way up to Bag End (Biblo’s house), we saw the Party Tree where Bilbo had his 111^th birthday, and across a small lake, we saw The Green Dragon Tavern (soon to be a working pub). Then we went to Bag End and Sam Gangee’s house.  We were supposed to stay with our guide, but one little Russian boy kept wandering off and slipped into a pond.

Josh in one of the Hobbit holes at Hobbiton

From there, we drove to Hamilton, the 4^th biggest city in New Zealand.  We got a room with a Queen, a double, and a single bed and had a yummy buffet dinner. Josh even had an ornate pineapple-lemonade drink.

Josh's drink at Valentine's

We got up Saturday before we left Hamilton, we went to the museum there.  Josh says “it was cool.”  It had animatronics and gave Josh some ideas what he wants to do with engineering when he grows up.

Laura and Burke have a "real life" Mario Cart race

After a Subway lunch (our 4^th or 5^th this trip), we headed east to Hot Water Beach, where Laura and the boys had been on the second day of their trip.  We got their at high tide, so we spent most of the night cooking dinner and watching TV (George-rugby and Laura and the boys Spiderman 3)

Sunday morning, we got up a little earlier and headed to the beach at low tide around 9:00 armed with shovels to build holes in the sand and to create our on family hot pool.  Two hours later, we were a little sandy, but warmer than the 45 degree and drizzly outside temperatures. 

We had a small cabin with no amenities last night, but upgraded to the family villa where we’re now relaxing, watching TV and chilling after a nice warm shower.

We’ll do a little more adventuring around the Coramandel Peninsula this afternoon and then head back to Auckland tomorrow afternoon.  One more update from there in a day or two.