Friday 23/1/15

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Friday 23/1/15

Left Cotswold Cottage with its massive king plus bed, guest sun lounge, super kiwi breakfast, excellent tourist info from the owner and lovely views across the valley. Today we are driving south towards Whakatane, first stop is at Matamata where the Hobbiton tours start. We took some photos of the iSite which looks like a hobbit house. Had a coffee and cake (I can see a pattern developing) and then just casually bumped into Jamie, Ian's colleague from work! Very bizarre in a little town in the middle of New Zealand. We had planned to meet him in Wellington next week but this was a total fluke. Back on the road again this time to Rotarura and a walk along the shores, we were commenting how, apart from the heat, parts of it could be mistaken for Windermere. Then we turned the corner and came across the sulphur beds and active thermal area, looked quite different then! The sulphur smell was quite strong in places but not as bad or as widespread as I was expecting. The whole town was clean and neat and looked as if it had been relaid recently.Whakatane was a pleasant surprise, we'd got the impression it was not the place to be but in fact it was a pretty town and river front. The motel was a disappointment after the last one but only because the view was of the car park instead of hills and valleys or the sea.

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