An earlier than usual getaway this morning,must be the excitement of visiting Hobbiton ,the movie set for the Lord of the rings and Hobbit trilogies. We of course got lost on the way as there are no signposts until you are virtually there. The visit is by guided tour only and you board a bus that takes right into the heart of the sheep farm where the set was built,dismantled and then built again but this time to last. The attention to detail is amazing,all the vegetables are growing for real and the same 5 gardeners who originally landscaped it are still maintaining it. You walk down the path that Bilbo uses to leave the village into Hobbiton itself and all the Hobbit holes are dotted about the dell with Bilbo's up on the hill,surmounted by a false oak tree made of steel and 200,000 hand painted leaves clipped on. The doors are all different sizes depending on the camera shot required and some are on a neighbouring hill to give an effect that the town was bigger than it actually was. From Bilbo's you descend down the hill,past the party field and Sam Gangee's house,over the bridge used by Gandalph by the watermill to the Green Dragon pub which is full size for the visitors to have an ale or two and be warmed by a real log fire. Both very welcome as it had drizzled on us.A great couple of hours.
After lunch we headed north towards the Coromandel peninsula . At first the countryside was all agricultural full of fluffy farm animals of one sort or another until we reached Thames named by Capt Cook as it resembled the Thames estuary and we could see why,a large muddy bay (at low tide anyway) but he ignored the mountains right behind. The road north then hugged this mountain range,it narrowed considerably as it winded its way up and down through sandy cliffs with pine tree trying to keep the road from subsiding into the sea just to our left but not 100% successfully either. We reached coromandel in time for a stroll along the main St as it has become an arty and foodie town. Local mussel fritters were on offer but we re breed the whitebait ones so instead went and had a cup of artisanal tea with a tasty brownie. We could have bought an organic butternut squash as well but settled on a couple of books from a charity shop.Definitely a sign of gentrification as was the old gold mine bank building housing an antique shop.