Hobbiton, NZ – slice of Middle Earth
Hobbiton, NZ – slice of Middle Earth
Having grown up in New Zealand I am fortunate to know the many amazing natural wonders that New Zealand has to offer. When Peter Jackson decided to bring to life the Lord of the Ring (LOTR) and the Hobbit trilogies, he also took this opportunity to highlight the beauty of New Zealand to the rest of the world. And wow, what a great job he did of promoting the land of the long white cloud!
Whether you are a Lord of the Ring (LOTR) fan or not you will love visiting The Hobbiton Movie Set. If you haven’t seen the film you will be magically transported to another world, a world of small hairy footed ‘Hobbits’.
Hobbiton is located about a 2-hour drive from Auckland, just outside Matamata, a small rural town in the north island of New Zealand. In 1998 Peter Jackson and his location scouts hired a helicopter to search for the perfect place to bring to life the Shire of the fictional Middle Earth. The shire was in fact the 500-hectare sheep and cattle farm owned by the Alexander family. Hobbiton is still a working farm but it has also become one of New Zealand’s most visited tourist attractions – about 400,000 visitors a year.
Every day, at five-minute intervals, groups of visitors, set off on a guided tour through the Hobbiton movie set. On tour, you get to explore the grounds of the shire, its rolling hills and beautifully tended gardens. Hobbits’ are known to love their gardens, with each hobbit hole decorated with flowers, herbs and vegetables.
At the end of the two-hour walking tour you can drink a complementary beer in the Green Dragon, a quaint pub located beside a small picturesque lake, where you can image hobbits once gathered to drink and reminisce about their day.
The Shire was built first for the LOTR movies but was then completely dismantled. By the time the Hobbit franchise came around it was decided that the Shire would become a tourist attraction and ‘Hobbiton’ was born.
Each hobbit hole was crafted to a different design, being dug out of the hillsides adding reinforcement, doors of different size and colour added to give the illusion of Hobbit size. To make the hobbit hole look 500 years old, layers of paint was applied and then aged with vinegar. To create lichen, paint, glue and yoghurt was mixed to encourage the growth of real moss.
My family enjoyed their visit to Hobbiton, and I would recommend you include it on your next trip to New Zealand.
Fun Facts about LOTR, Hobbit Franchise & Hobbiton the Movie set:
- THE Lord of the Rings is an epic, high-fantasy novel written between 1937 and 1949 by English author and scholar JRR Tolkien.
- With more than 150 million copies sold, it is said to be the world’s most-read book after the Bible.
- The films were among the highest grossing of all time and won 17 Academy Awards.
- The Hobbit series out grossed The Lord of the Rings trilogy but did not win as many awards.
- There are 44 Hobbit holes – all different sizes and dimensions to provide an illusion of size.
- The natural pond on the site had many noisy frogs. The film crew had to catch them all so that their noise wouldn’t interfere with the filming.
- the huge tree above Bag End is artificial. It is made of steel and silicone and had 200,000 artificial leaves wired into it. Ten days before filming The Hobbit it was decided the colour of the leaves wasn’t right. So, crew were lowered in cranes to spray all the leaves the right colour.