Oh, yeah! This is one place we were really looking forward to seeing again! When we were visiting NZ in 2005, it was after all the Lord of the Rings (LOTR) movies and it was still a big NZ tourist draw. "Hobbiton" is outside of the small town of Matamata on the North Island. The story we were told is that they were flying over the area, scouting locations for Hobbiton, and saw the big tree (known as "the Party Tree" for Bilbo's big birthday bash) next to a lake. It was in the middle of a big sheep ranch, beautiful rolling hills and green, green, green. The scouts got excited and found the owner of the property. When they tried to talk to the owner, the scouts were told to come back later, because they were interrupting a big rugby match! (Rugby is most definitely the national sport in NZ; a lot of things come to a halt when the big matches are on the telly!) Come back later they did (oops, I was channelling Yoda) and made a deal to turn part of the sheep ranch into Hobbiton. However, part of the deal was that they would completely dismantle everything and put it back the way they found it when they were done shooting the films. The talented folks went to work for a year turning the hills into Hobbiton, to include the mature gardens and everything gorgeous we saw in the films. Alas, when filming was complete, they set about dismantling everything, as promised. As luck would have it, weather intervened and they couldn't get it completely done and would have to finish later. During this little break, the property owners were convinced that they could make a lot of money turning this part of the sheep ranch into a tourist attraction, since LOTR tourist fever was still hot. So, when we visited in 2005, all that was left was the sheetrock-ish fronts on the Hobbit holes. But it didn't matter to us, we were in Hobbiton!!
Fast forward to 2013, and The Hobbit is a hot movie. The Hobbit (and LOTR) Director Peter Jackson is back at work in Hobbiton, only this time they're leaving just about everything intact once they're done. While the Hobbit hole doors could have used a spring cleaning and a fresh coat of paint, it's still magic to be standing in the middle of the movie set. It's easy to picture Bilbo running through Hobbiton, the long contract streaming behind him as he runs to catch up with the dwarves. The set is amazing!!
There are several differences from our first visit in 2005 and this visit, besides the fact that the doors and other things are intact. The bridge was built as a permanent structure this time (the one on which Gandalf enters Hobbiton in the first LOTR movie). And the other, HUGE, difference is that the Green Dragon tavern has been rebuilt and is more than just a movie set. We drank some ale and had a snack in the big taven. How delightful! Let me tell you, those Hobbits make some pretty good stout!
Since The Hobbit is now the popular movie, the tour centers on stories and sights from that movie. However, those of us who have watched every minute of every extra on every DVD of every LOTR movie were looking more for familiar things from those movies. We were rewarded with discovering Sam's house! Not even mentioned on the official tour, we had to confirm with our guide that was, indeed, Sam's house. You could picture Sam coming down the path to meet Rosie and their kids at their house, and saying, "I'm home." Thus ending the Lord of the Rings saga.
What a great day! We didn't want to leave Hobbiton, but our guide insisted we get on the bus to go back...
We've posted a few photos to show what we saw on our 2005 trip to Hobbiton and what we saw this time. You should find that interesting!
