A quick post as it’s New Year’s Eve, tomorrow brings the start of a shiny new year and today’s been a busy day of adventures!

This morning after a slow and lazy start we finally got ourselves in gear and took a drive around and out of Rotorua. We pretty much followed our noses and ended up at the Waimango volcanic valley. The youngest hydrothermal system in the world, created by a huge eruption only 130 years ago! We took the hiking trail along past the different craters filled with boiling bubbling waters, past all the steaming and spouting geysers and were so lucky to see the inferno crater bubbling and cascading over the top causing a steamy waterfall!

As we walked along Den and I dug deep with our geothermal and acidity knowledge 😳 as we tried our best to explain all we saw to the questioning girls!!! We might need to recap on that after some googling at a later date!!!!

Then to round off the year perfectly we then drove down to the Hobbiton film set in matamata. The sun was shinning and we took the walking tour over the famous rolling hills down to the shire! We saw all the sweet little hobbit holes and even tried some cider and beer in the green dragon! Loved it, and need to watch the films again so I can see where we walked!

Well I’m off to watch the fireworks and enjoy a glass of wine!

Wishing you all a happy healthy 2017! Xxx