Hobbiton & Rotorua

For Nat especially…the only girl I know who played (and probably still does) Lord of The Rings Online. Also a mention of Vero and Martin has to be made considering they seem to want to point out that they are pretty big fans as well! (Judging from the comments section).

We hit the non flooded roads of New Zealand on our way to the greatest spot on earth…I mean Middle-Earth! We were off to check out Hobbiton!

First off, I have to say that the rolling hills of sheep and the winding roads to Hobbiton win New Zealand the award for best roads to travel! It’s amazing how the scenery changed from one end of the country to the other. It’s probably like crossing Canada but in a third of the time.

We rolled into Matamata which is the start of the trip to Hobbitton. They really embrace The Lord of the Rings tourism..the town visitor center looks like a house from the movie. Even the tour operators really get into it with their tales of the films.

Hobbiton was built on private land for the movies. The sheep farmers living there knew nothing of LOTR and when they visited the set a few times they thought it was the strangest thing. It wasn’t until seeing the film that they understood a few things.

When the original LOTR films were done, they destroyed the Hobbiton set. But once the land owners started getting tourists wanting to see all filming locations, they started tours. Now, imagine that years ago, it was just the remnants of a destroyed set. Fast forward to now with the filming of the Hobbit films…the producers (and no doubt the land owners) were smart enough to build Hobbiton with proper materials so that it can last for fifty years and more. Hence, the tours!

The tour bus broke down on the way and I wondered if this was an awesome part of the tour where a bunch of Orcs would attack us from behind a bush…but no such luck! It was just an old bus.

The tour lasted two hours which was a great amount of time. They know people want to take pictures so they allow for a lot of time for photos at every Hobbit hole and then continue talking about the set.

My favourite part was the Green Dragon Inn which is a fully functional tavern with free dragon ale upon arrival! It had great little details around the Inn like maps of the Shire and a hilarious lost and found section. Turns out that people also can rent the place to get married! Imagine getting married in the Green Dragon Inn!

Here’s some factoids we picked up along the way:
– we couldn’t walk into Bag End (the main hobbit hole) until the last Hobbit films will be released. Probably in case there are reshooting.
– there is a scene in the films where the sun is setting but it is an impossible shot as the sun is setting in the east! They had to digitally manipulate the shot.
– there are two thousand visitors per day to the set!
– one time there were a bunch of French girls dressed as elves who just wanted to dance for two hours in the field. The tour guide said that was definitely the most interesting group he has ever seen but has also seen people dressed as hobbits, elves, dwarves…all the characters!
-the hobbit holes were built at varying scales…30, 60 and 80 percent real size for perspective.
– when Gandalf walks into Bag End for the first time and smacks his head on a beam, he really did do this as the holes are tiny.

It was a great time to visit an actual movie set and I’m sure if I find others in the future they will be just as fun! Hobbiton was definitely a highlight of the trip and I’m glad they don’t rush the tour. I think even non LOTR fans would enjoy it.

We continued down the road to the town of Rotorua, home of some interesting smells! There are thermal pools everywhere which let out a sulphur smell. We settled into and excellent motor inn and decided to take a walk round the lake before it got dark.

We had never seen thermal pools or geysers before and it was quite the different experience. THIS is why we love travelling…seeing things we have never witnessed before. Imagine that the ground around a geyser can be one hundred degrees Celsius! It is unheard of. The land around Rotorua is full of these wonders and is quite remarkable.

We picked up some groceries and beer and headed home where I realized I never put my headlights on considering a car pulled out in front of us like he never saw us! That was a close call and I have to thank the Mazda3 for having automatic lights for this predicament.