Nerding out LotR style

Busy day nerding out at as much Tolkien as I could find in the limited time!
Left at 7:30am to go on the Hobbiton Movie set tour, which was awesome 😁 tried to make a deal with the Green Dragon Inn landlady to buy a hobbit hole... felt very homely and comfortable there 😅
The set is incredible, the detail is so good and with all the chimneys and windows poking out the hills, alongside the evidence of hobbits occupations and hobbies made you feel like it was a real live village or going to see a 'how they live' tour! The tour lasted 2 hours but I could have stayed there longer!
Next I went to find a hike - Haku Falls, it was a success!!! The walk was beautiful and the falls really powerful, was nice to stretch my legs as had already done about 3 hours driving!
Back to geeking out though, Mount Doom was just south of Lake Taupo so obvs had to go and try and see that! And on the way spotted Gollums Pools... so another obvious stop off point! Much shorter walk (litterally about 10 minutes!) and a mini scramble over some rocks to an amazing waterfall and pools, was gorgeous... and really quiet (a huge group of school kids just left, think I timed it perfectly!)
It was around 7pm by this point and realised it was at least a 3 hour drive back to Hamilton, so decided to get hoping and try and find a nice spot to watch the sunset... Lake Taupo has the perfect viewing areas!
After sunset, made my way back... didn't get back till bed until 10:30pm... long but awsome day!Read more