This tour ended up being a mix for us. On one hand, our three drivers (Edson, Dallas, and Keith) over two days were very friendly and accommodating, the Waitomo Caves tour, Hobbiton tour, and free time around Rotorua were all amazing. On the other, you could tell that the central organizers of logistics were not on their game for us.
We were picked up a little after 6:30am on June 30th after being told to be be ready to go by 6:30am. From there, our first driver told us we were already running behind, as my wife and I were going to be handed off to another driver in Matamata to go to Waitomo caves, then back to Te Puia for lunch. It seems like us being behind 30 minutes was because of the rendezvous so far East, only to have to go all the way back West to the caves, then back East again. As a result, we were a little rushed at the Caves (though the tour was still great and we had enough time to buy our photos and a magnet), but very rushed to eat lunch at Te Puia (we had about 25 minutes to eat at the buffet before heading on the walking tour).
The Te Puia tour was pretty cool. We learned about Maori culture, saw Kiwi birds, steam vents, crafts being created as part of the Maori school, and the food at the buffet lunch was also pretty good. From there, we were taken to our JetPark hotel to settle in before being picked up to go to the Mitai Maori village for a traditional Hangi meal and cultural show. Think luau, but the Maori version.
The show was really well done, starting with the war canoe river intro, followed by the enclosed chief welcome, and then various dances and songs that were interesting and fun. We really enjoyed that. Then we were brought back into the food hall to have the buffet food, which was largely like a Thanksgiving variation with chicken, lamb, roasted potatoes and veggies, fish chowder, bread, some salad, gravy, and then dessert later (Pavlova, chocolate cake, hot vanilla custard, coffee, tea). There was also a paid bar with wine, beer, and spirits, but because dinner was so late and whirlwind with the buffet, don't plan on having too many drinks.
Following that we had the Q&A, which was interesting, and then a pointless walk in the rain back down to the river and up to the buses to allegedly see glowworms, but without umbrellas (they ran out) and pouring rain, we didn't see any and just tried to avoid getting super soaked.
After that, we were driven back to our hotel for a terrible night because the Air Conditioning ended up pumping hot, sulfurous (because of the nearby sulfur steam vents) air into the room despite being set to 16 degrees. We woke up at midnight to the hot, smelly room and just turned off the unit until it cooled down because none of the windows opened and obviously messing with the controller wasn't going to do anything.
Our itinerary for the next day said to be ready after breakfast (continental, pretty unimpressie) by 7:30am, so we were, but we ended up getting picked up at around 8am to head to Hobbiton (an extra 30 minutes to sleep and pack up would have been nice). There we arrived early, in time for the 9:40am tour, so we had a creme-filled cronut and latte while we waited to queue up for the tour. From there, we were bused to Hobbiton and had a beautiful tour of The Shire, sunny and cool, ending with a tasty beer at The Green Dragon. Loved it.
After that, Keith said we could do whatever we wanted until we needed to get to the Rotorua airport at 3pm for our flight to Wellington. We thought there would be more of an itinerary, but he recommended a locals-known sandwich place called Ciabatta for lunch (very tasty), followed by us selecting to take the skyline/gondola up a nearby mountain to take in some views and do a wine tasting at the Volcanic Winery tasting room. That was awesome, and then we made our way down the mountain and were ushered to the airport for drop-off.
All in all, it was a nice tour, but the logistics issues with running late, being rushed, getting picked up at different times than designated in the itinerary, a hotel room without working Air Conditioning, etc. did put a damper on the experience.