Busy day ("a tale of two cheese shops")

Photos:
1. Last night's lodging, the formerly glorious and now somewhat less wonderful but slowly being restored Putaruru Hotel
2. Delicious cheese shop in Putaruru
3. Hilarious store that we drove by in the next town over, Tirau, that piqued our curiosity enough for us to turn around and check it out. They sold, unsurprisingly, merino wool products.

Then we drove up to Hamilton to spend the rainy day at New Zealand's largest mall, only to discover that the dire weather forecasts were incorrect, so we drove back through Tirau to Matamata for...

4&5. The Hobbiton tour!!! Hobbit cheesemonger and us with part of the movie set in the background.

And now we are in Auckland.