One of my best friends from college, Cye, arrived yesterday morning. I got up early took the bus to the airport to get him. After returning to the boat we had lunch with Mark and then Mark headed off to do boat errands and I got to have an walk all around the city. Cye and I just started walking and came across all sorts of stores. We basically walked around the city and in-and-out of stores for about 3 hours just chatting and enjoying the day. We then did a little BBQ on the boat and relaxed for the evening.

Today was another long day. Mark stayed with the boat and did some more general maintenance while Cye and I got up early and took the bus down to Tauranga. We walked across the bridge to the marina and picked-up our car that we left down there when we sailed up last week. We then ran an errand and quick lunch before heading up to Hobbiton. We got lucky because we arrived at about 2:40 and the 2:30 tour was running late so we got to take it and not have to wait a whole hour for the next one. I would love to give you a play-by-play and put up tons of pics but well they consider it an active film set since The Hobbit will be filming there shortly and therefore I cannot. What I can say is that it was awesome and we had so much fun. We are so glad we got to see it just about ready for filming. I should also say just how appropriate it was that I got to do this with Cye. The movies all came out when we were in college and we hit up the midnight showings of all of them together with a few other friends. It must have been fate that I didn't get to do it before they were supposed to start the filming in February and then the filming got delayed allowing us to go now. If you ever get to NZ it is a must see. I feel I can now leave NZ fully satisfied. After the tour we got to see a sheep shearing presentation and feed four baby lambs that are only 14 days old. They were so cute and we had a great time. After our LOTR adventure we drove the 2+ hours back to Auckland, took a trip to the grocery store, and made a great pasta dinner. Let's just say I'm pretty sure Mark and I are going to eat well over the next month....sorry aunt Pam for stealing your personal chef but I'm glad to have him!