Yesterday we relocated to the middle of the North Island, to the area known best for Volcano valley, hot springs, mud baths, sulfur smells and Hobbiton Among other things.
The day started clear enough to get one last pic of the mountain

The rest of the drive was grey, and rainy… but not enough to clean Cora!
The drive was otherwise uneventful , we did pass a pair of buns

We did pause one place that was interesting, for a brief photo stop. New Plymouth,



Our GPS decided to take us on an odd detour for no apparent reason… so we thought… then we spotted this

We arrived in Taupõ, and settled into our extremely comfy airbnb… complete with 3 Cats and many Chooks, and sheep.






This morning, we headed out to Rotorua, not for the hot springs…. Not for the mud baths…. Not to visit Hobbiton… but to visit the Agrodome and National Kiwi Hatchery.









The main event was the Kiwi Hatchery. There are no photos allowed inside… sorry… but we saw the cutest Kiwi Chick called Pebbles getting his lunch. The cutest!!!









Another epic day.
PS, we are not big enough Hobbit fans… so will likely not spend the 240$ to visit there! Sorry to disappoint anyone who hoped that was going to happen.


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