Hobbiton and Te Puia from Auckland: No Shopping Stop, Two Attractions

Two attractions and a drive, without a retail stop bolted onto the end. Hobbiton fills the morning. The green buses run from the gate into the 12-acre set, and a Hobbiton guide walks the group through it for two and a half hours: the pastures of the Shire, 44 hobbit holes, the gardens, and how the films were built here. The Green Dragon Inn pours a cold drink that comes with the ticket. Te Puia fills the afternoon. Pōhutu Geyser, Māori architecture, the National Māori Arts School with students at work, geothermal craters, and the kiwi viewing house. Between them, Tirau, which is the corrugated iron capital of the world by its own reckoning, and the Waikato farmland that the operator rates the most extensive on earth. Cheeky Kiwi Travel keeps the groups small and drives modern minibuses. The guides talk, which is the point of paying for a tour rather than renting a car. Rotorua closes with a drive past the lake, the museum, the Government Gardens, Whangapipiro (Rachel Spring) and the Blue Baths, then the road north with a few stops the guide keeps quiet about until you reach them. Cancel at least 24 hours before departure for a full refund.