New Zealand #17 - Hobbiton - North Island

In South Island we saw several Lord of the Rings settings, like Glenorchy north of Queenstown, what I called the land of the orcs, and the Crown Range between Arrowton and Wanaka, on the way to Haast on the west coast. You can check out those early posts in this series if you want to see the landscapes (the easiest way to find them is on #steemitworldmap). Much of the filming however was done in Wellington and in Hobbiton, about an hour south of Auckland.

Our son is a massive LOTR fan, and now he's got his nieces involved; we also really enjoyed the films so I had to arrange our roadtrip itinerary to visit the Hobbiton set near the town of Matamata. But this post is also for @ewkaw, who has been patiently waiting since I started my NZ series several weeks ago!

It is 20 Celsius and sunny all day, one of our best weather days in New Zealand so perfect for an outdoor tour. We have a very pleasant 1 hour drive to Hobbiton, surprising brightonbonnie who is sometimes geographically-unaware and does not realize it is on our agenda for today!

We are able to change our pre-booked tour time from 1 pm to noon, then kill 90 minutes at the gift shop before having lunch at Shire Rest, lamb burger for me and a normal burger for brightonbonnie. The prices aren't outrageous as is often the case at tourist attractions, and the food is not bad.

Looking from Shire Rest towards the set, hidden behind the hills.

On the short bus ride in the driver tells us that New Zealand Army Engineers built the road, the cover story being a training exercise - until the soldiers were given a night off and in a pub in Matamata, after a few beers, the real story came out. Go figure @tattoodjay! The next day the press were all over the site, including helicopters - the government actually had to declare a no-fly zone and a couple of pilots were charged!

The site was partially demolished after LOTR but was rebuilt for the Hobbit follow-on. It is very impressive, with nice touches like worked vegetable plots, hung laundry, and smoke coming from chimneys. The big challenge for me was to get the shots I wanted without people in them - there were about 30 people in our group, and even though the tours were well spread out you could usually see the tour ahead of you, or the one behind. See if you can spot the people in the next few shots...

Our excellent guide, Sam. I ask if all the guides are named Sam, and he says 'No' - I'm not sure I believe him!

The leaves on the tree are artificial. Peter Jackson didn't like the original paint used, and had all the leaves redone. Sam said he was a stickler for detail - I think it might have been a statement - 'my vision, I'm in charge!'. Next time I meet Sir Peter I'll ask him.

The Hobbit holes are virtually all solely for exterior shots, with all the interior work being done in Wellington. About 5 of the holes have working doors and a small room inside, just big enough, and empty, so scenes can be filmed looking outside past the door! Some holes are also different heights, to accommodate the different actors, as you can see in these two shots.

Along the way we see some of the main attractions like the party tree...

...and are invited to play, but we pass as beer awaits us...

...one glass included in the tour cost at the inn, and not bad on a hot day.

At the gift shop before lunch we bought a copy of this sign from the entrance to Balbo Boggins’ house for our son, and also - again for him - a very nice coffee table book describing all the LOTR filming locations in New Zealand - a must-have if you are a serious fan traveling in NZ!

One last look before we leave a very well organized tour, and a fun time.

PS - if you've enjoyed this post please check out my first 16 New Zealand posts, the previous 19 posts in my Australia series, and the 3 before that as we started our 90 day roadtrip in Tahiti!

And please join us in my next post as we stop in Waihi Beach on our way further north.

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You can find this, and other exciting adventures from some great travelling Steemians at Steemit Worldmap (I just stole this line from @shellyduncan so thanks to her for a great way to publicize a great travelers tool):

!steemitworldmap -37.873666 lat 175.684532 long Hobbiton New Zealand d3scr