We had only planned on spending one night at Te Aroha Landing, but some bad weather blew in overnight, and when we woke up in the morning it was clear it wouldn't be safe for us to ride. It was pouring down rain and the wind was gusting at around 60mph, so we decided to spend another night in our River Chalet and hope the storm would blow itself out by the next day. We were grateful we hadn't been in the tent the night before, because with that wind there probably wouldn't have been much left of it. We spent the day relaxing in bed, watching the second Hobbit movie and eating more delicious food. The hurricane force gusts died down overnight, but there was still a fairly strong wind to fight the next day as we rode towards Matamata.
We covered the 36k in a little over 2 hours, despite the consistent headwind, but when we got to the visitors center we got the bad news that the Hobbitton movie set was still another 16k out of town. We only had another hour before our tour, so we hopped back on the bikes and tried to pick up the pace. We made it to the ticket office at the top of a long steep climb with just a few minutes to spare.
From there we hopped on a bus and were driven over a few more hills and to the beginning of the movie set where we got to get out and walk around. It was really neat to stroll through the Shire and see all of the intricate details from the movies up close. Unfortunately there were quite a few other people in our group and a lot of other groups around, so it was a challenge to get pictures without a bunch of strangers in them. At the end of the tour we stopped at the Green Dragon for a complimentary beer before heading back to the ticket office and hopping back on our bikes to start making our way towards our next stop; Rotorua.
For more pictures, see the photo post.
For more pictures, see the photo post.
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