First Weekend Trips

19-20 May was the first full weekend we had here in Hamilton. With Mary being an ardent fan of Lord of the Rings, we decided to visit the Hobiton Movie Set in Matamata, which is about 60km away from where we are staying. It was an interesting experience for the rest of us who may or may not have watched the various LOTR movies and Mary gave us a quick summary of what the movies are about as we were on the bus ride from the Shire's Rest Cafe to the actual movie set.



The guide was sharing with us about the various scenes that were shot at that location and what amazed me the most was how particular Peter Jackson, the director of LOTR, was regarding the props and background settings. He even planted a fake tree, with hand-painted leaves, to replace the one that had died and was cut down.



On Sunday, our airbnb hosts were kind enough to bring us to Tauranga for the day. In a 2 car convoy, we drove to Tauranga in the morning which is about 110km away from our house. Below is a picture of the famous Mt Maunganui which is just by the coast of Bay of Plenty in Tauranga. 


We were fortunate to have good weather on that day and the perfect weather to play at the beach. 
7 of us together with our airbnb host's daughter, Zain

We took a walk to the little island, that is in the background of the above picture, where we all discovered that we have an inner spider-man in us, as we jumped from rock to rock just to get great pictures. 


From there, on the way back we stopped by McLaren Falls, which is a beautiful waterfall with a dam.  

Here is us with our airbnb host, Vanda, beside Brenda, her daughter between Deana and me and one of their guests, a student originally from Korea




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