Lord of the Rings played a massive part in the reason we wanted to come to New Zealand. The films show the country in all its glory and I can’t imagine anybody watching the movies and not wanting to visit such a spectacular place.
Now, we’ve driven all round the South Island and been mesmerised by Middle Earth on many occasions but it was finally time to get sucked into a tourist favourite and have a trip to the Hobbiton Movie Set.
From the moment you arrive, with a little help from a good imagination, you feel as though you are a living in a dream where you can run through fields laughing and without a care in the world. I’m guessing that’s how Frodo felt before he was burdened with the one ring.
You do have a tour guide and I was a bit dubious of this at first because I basically just wanted to skip around Hobbiton and pop over to Bag End for a cuppa without being shimmied around and told when and where to stop. However, the tour guides are really nice and do stop a few times to give you some interesting facts but they are really good at leaving you to your own devices when it comes to taking photos and nosying at all the different hobbit holes. There are 44 of them after all!!
When casting hobbits, they only use the local community (apart from the big parts) and describe them as round faced, gleeful and liking their food. Paul looked straight at me and I knew instantly that I belonged in The Shire as I have always been a fan of 1st, 2nd and 3rd breakfasts.
Hobbiton was rebuilt for the Hobbit movies and was built to last this time as it was felt that it was just too good a set to break down again (and I’m sure money making factored into the equation somewhere). It is really impressive though and the (literally) tiny touches like the washing on the washing line, pots of jam and Bilbo’s pipe and book just filled my heart with pure glee! I could definitely live here but Paul’s height would be a factor.
To top it all off you get to go to The Green Dragon and have an ale so I had the amber ale and Paul had the stout. I then fancied standing on a table and singing a song whilst doing a jig but thought better of it when I realised I was probably the only hobbit there. I’m guessing all the others were hiding from tourists.
Another wonderful day with my dream of becoming a hobbit finally realised. This place is a must for any Lord of the Rings fan!
Magical!! ?Did they serve John Smiths in the Green Dragon ? ?? Xx
They didn’t ? Ale was specially brewed by hobbits xx
How did Paul get you away? It all sounds amazing. Xx