To Whatakane

Up about 7:40 so I could beat the Kiwk Experience rush. Showered, and then went to the cafe at the hostel for breakfast, because I didn't have any cereal and the toaster in the kitchen is broken. Had a bacon and egg breakfast...$15. Breakfast is VERY expensive in NZ, not like Canada where you can get breakfast specials for under $5 anywhere.

Left about 9:00, and drove west from Waitomo to see a few things. Stopped at the Mangapohue Natural Bridge, a huge natural bridge over a river that would hacve once been part of a huge cavern. Most of it has since collapsed, leaving just this natural double arch. Quite impressive! Then I drove on to Marokopa Falls, a huge 36m waterfall. Spectacular!

Then back to Waitomo town and bought a couple of postcards and stamps depicting some of the stuff we did in the cave yesterday. Then called and made a White Island tour booking (out of Whakatane) for tomorrow. They will call me at 7:00 this evening to let me know if the tour will go ahead. It often gets cancelled because of rough weather (wind). Then called Bargain Car Rentals and told them I would have the car back on the 10th or 11th. It was suppose to be back on Sept. 2, and I didn't want them to call the cops and claim it was stolen!

Then I drove back to the main highway (SH3), and headed north to Te Awamutu, where I used the internet for an hour and filled up with petrol, then north a bit more to Hamilton, and turned east on SH1, towards Rotorua. Made a small detour once I got to SH29 and headed up to Matamata...aka Hobbiton. They filmed Hobbiton from Lord of the Rings near the grassy, rolling hills of Matamata. Coming into the city of 10,000, the welcome sign exclaims: "Welcome to Hobbiton" Then in small letters underneath, "Matamata, New Zealand". They do tours from the visitors centre to the set of Hobbiton for $50. I didn't have time.

Then took SH27 back down to SH1, and went through Tirau, and had to stop and take a few pictures. The visitors centre is a huge dog, another building next door is a huge sheep. Other businesses have huge things on their roofs: grasshopper, hunk of cheese with mouse, pippy's, bumble bee. Bizarre. What a town will try to attract visitors. It worked for me, I stopped. Didn't spend any money in town, but I did stop!

Got to Rotorua, and then took SH30 up to Whakatane. Arrived about 4:45 and checked into Larry's Lodge. It's run by a Maori gentlemand and his wife. Very nice, friendly people. I'm the only one at the hostel.

Drove downtown to check to check out the city centre, nice city, the main downtown area is sandwiched between the ocean and a river on one side, and a big cliff on the other side, very picturesque.

The hostel is perfectly situated (or horribly situated, depending on your preferences). Directly on one side is Burger King, directly on the other side is KFC, and directly across the street is McDonalds. I chose Burger King.

AFter supper, back the hostel and a Quebecoise guy, Francois, why just started working in Whakatane with his girlfriend/wife, was here explaining his company won't let him and his wife stay at a backpacker. The company was paying for him and his wife to stay at a motel for the first two weeks, while they found a place on their own. With their two weeks running out, and no permanent place to stay available (they did have a house, but couldn't move in for another three weeks), they decided to stay at Larry's Lodge and talked to the owners and made arrangements, etc. Well, I guess the company he's working for asked him how his accomodations are going, and he remarked that they were going to move into a backpacker until they could move into their rental house, and they company got upset, and told him "Our employees DO NOT stay in backpackers!", and told him he couldn't live in the backpacker, and told him to stay at their current motel and the company would continue to cover the cost of the motel for the next three weeks until they could move into their house. Anyway, the four of us sat around the kitchen table and chatted.

About 7:00, White Island Tours called and said they would call at 8:00 tomorrow morning and let me know if the tour is going ahead.

About 7:30, went to the theatre to see a movie, "Taking Sides", kind of boring movie about a great orchestra conductor during Hitler's reign, and how he refused to leave Germany, even when all his peers were getting out (because of the war). The movie actually takes place after the war, where the US sends in a lawyer/investigator type guy to try and link the conductor to being a Nazi so he could be brought up in court for crimes against humanity or something.

Went to bed about 11:00.

In one of the washrooms in the hostel, a Canadian girl who was staying there a while ago, started a Celine Dion Fan Club. Hare and Pam (the owners) get a kick out of it, and tell all CAnadian's to add to it.