Tauranga

We had a wonderful time and especially enjoyed Hobbiton, which was much larger than we had anticipated. Our guide did a very good job of adding both detail and color. Rotorua was interesting as well and we were fortunate enough to see one of the geysers go off while we were there. Our tour driver (you will spend 2-3 hours in the van) was more of a driver than a guide, adding little to the road time. Also, our information had shown this as a 7 hr excursion, when in fact it was closer to 9 hours, with no road problems or other issues that would have elongated the time. We had plenty of time, so it was not an issue, but if we had been closer to our cruise departure time, it could have been a real problem.