Our lodgings in the Matamata area Tuesday night were a "farmstay" near Wairere Falls. Of all the places I had found online for our trip, I was the most unsure about this one, based on its little webpage and its price ($80 NZ + $20 for 1 extra person, so that was only about $55 US). So our expectations weren't very high when we drove up to the little house in the farmland; our hosts were cutting grass out front, and I thought the house was theirs and our cottage was somewhere in the back 40, but it turned out that the whole house was ours for the night; the hosts' home was next door. We were pleasantly surprised as our hostess took us for a little tour of the house… 3 bedrooms, a full bath, a spacious living room with a wood-burning stove, a farm-sized kitchen with a sunny dining area, front porch, carport, and this view out the back window:

 

 

 

 

We arranged with Steve & Heather for breakfast in the morning. It was $20 extra, and it was self-cook, but it was quite generous… around 7:00am or so, Steve brought around a basket full of farm-fresh eggs, tomatoes, yogurt, bacon, cereal, juice, milk, coffee, bread – a complete country breakfast!

 

 

 

 

 

We declined the offer to come out and help with the milking of his dairy herd (part of the farmstay deal), but we did enjoy watching the gentle cows come up to the fence surrounding our cottage. The flies, not so much, but we knew we were on a real farm, so it wasn't unexpected.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When we got back to the cottage Tuesday evening after dinner in Matamata, we were treated to a dramatic rainbow over Wairere Falls…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I couldn't resist taking this photo.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here's a little tour of the cottage – for once, I remembered to take the pictures before we threw our junk around 🙂

 

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