We awoke in the morning to the news that The British and Irish Lions had triumphed in Sydney. We immediately celebrated with a lie-in. As todays activity had already been booked in advance, we were off to The Shire. We met the tour bus at “The Shires Rest Area”, a bespoke gift shop on the edge of a farm. In 2003, when scouting for locations for Hobbitton, Peter Jackson stumbled across a sheep farm outside Matamata. It was perfect. From “inside” the village, you can’t see any roads, buildings or power lines. However, what you do have is the lake, the party tree and rolling hills with the mountains in the background. Thus, it was chosen without further thought. Then in 2009, when filming on the Lord of the Rings trilogy finished, Jackson ordered, as per
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