For those of you that have been living in a cave for the past 10 years there was this series of films called Lord Of The Rings. Fantasy based with Elves, Dwarfs, hobbits and Goblins etc which was extremelly successful. Following on from this was The Hobbit not quite the nostalgia but still good successful film's.
I wasn't a huge fan the first time I saw it. It was way to long for me and only the battle scenes caught my attention. But being in New Zealand and realising I was days away from visiting Hobbiton (where the hobbits live in the film) I thought I'd binge all three!
Where is Hobbiton?
It's in the north east part of New Zealand in a place called Matamata. A huge area of farmland and open fields. You can take a day tour there from Auckland but it's quite a journey and I'd suggest hiring a camper or car.
The visit wasn't what I expected. First off the weather didn't portray the film. In the film it's blue skies and sunny days to represent the "good guys" but whe Ingot there is was a little on the grey side.
I thought we could park up, get the tickets and walk around at our own leisure.
Nope!
The set of the film is a small distance away from the help center/car park/bus station. Yes bus station, you have to get a bus to the actual location. This however was actually quite a nice touch as they play the famous shire theme along with clips of the movie's and hobbiton itself on screen.
As the shire theme played, I could start to see the little hills and houses come into view, it was quite atmospheric!
When you arrive, you'll walk down a very famous path.
Recognise this?
"Im going on an adventure!
This the exact path you walk down when you arrive. To make it even more special for me, this is the exact picture I posted on facebook before I left for Australia. I had no plans for New Zealand at all and never knew I'd be standing in that exact spot!
Crazy right?
The place really is great to look at, the detail of the set is very well done and they made the houses different sizes with different doors to make the Gandalf the human wizard appear bigger than the rest of the hobbits. It's simple, but very clever!
See what I mean?
This one's tiny!
Another good/bad thing about visiting there is you have a guide which you have to stick to with your group of about 8 or so. This means you have to follow a set path and you have a time limit in which to experience it. The guide was great though and told us some facts about the film which were really interesting.
Did you know that when Aragorn played by Vigo Mortensen kicks a helmet on the floor grieving the death of another character he actually breaks his toe! But still manages to use this pain in the scene to aif the pain and suffering he's supposed to be "acting" out. They kept it in the final copy too, it's quite funny watching it again when you know that's what happened.
What legend for carrying on.
As you walk around and head up the yellow path you can see a very familiar house where bodo bagins lived.
It's definitely his house, I recognised the sign from the films.
Knock knock Mr Baggins!
Towards the end of the visit you have 30 minutes to look around at your liesure and can pop into the pub called The Green Dragon, fully functioning with their own special ale which was really good!
It's certainly worth the visit, even if you aren't a huge fan, or haven't seen the films.
A little pricey maybe but it's a once in a lifetime visit and who knows how long they'll keep it open in the future.
It's all thanks to the local farmers allowing such an attraction to exist. Without their permission the set would of been taken down a long time ago.