Sneaky Hobbits, Camping, and Fun in the Sun

One of the things that was highest on Chris and I's to-do in New Zealand was to visit Hobbiton where all of the hobbit scenes were filmed in The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings trilogy. We went with one of our best friends, Spider, and we even made a new friend, Katja.

 The above group picture from Katja :)

Afterwards we drove to Waihi Beach and relaxed for a short while on a beautiful, sandy beach.

And we ended the night by pulling into a camping ground, quickly setting up camp, cooking some dinner and playing the questions game while watching for shooting stars (I saw one!).

This group picture above is from her as well.

Finding Nemo, Dory, Gill, Bloat, Bubbles, and Chum

The past week instead of relaxing and lounging around I have done a brand new thing every day. We flew into Auckland a few days ago and have been on the move since our arrival.

 
One of the new things Chris and I did was go to Kelly Tarlton's aquarium.  The coolest things about this place is that the aquarium is underground, it has a shark tunnel, and if you so choose you can play with penguins or dive with sharks (I didn't do either).  But I did find Nemo and Marlin, Dory and Gill, Bubbles and the shark squad.