Today we head to Matamata to visit an old friend from our earlier travels. We manage to figure out how to navigate thru the city with its many roads under construction and numerous traffic circles.

Once on the highway it is smooth sailing to our first stop – Cambridge is famous for its race horses.

Then onto Tirau – a very small town with odd corrugated buildings – shaped like a sheep,pig, and a dog. As we stroll thru the town we see many cute signs made out of the same material.

Our last stop of the day is Matamata, a small town of 7000 people were our friend lives. As we stroll thru the town we come across the visitor’s center, it is built to look like a hobbit house from the LOTR.

When we finally make it to Sandra’s house we discover we are a day early and she is not home. 🙁

Fortunately Sandra showed up a little while later and we have a very nice diner while we catch up.