Hobbiton

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26th April ’12 HOBBITON!

Woo hoo we went to Matamata today to do the Hobbiton tour! We drove through lovely undulating pretty green hills and fields, had a quick stop in Tirau – home of the cabbage tree apparently and were amazed that such a small place could have so many cafes and shops for so few people. Then got to Matamata where we booked our tickets for the tour and got directions to the farm on whose land the movie set is.

Well it was brilliant! The guide was full of funny stories and anecdotes about the filming of The Lord of the Rings and how various props were made. He also confirmed that the set had been used for the new film The Hobbit. The hobbit holes were amazing and so cute! You could go inside the door of one of them so we did!! We saw Bag End, the Party Tree, Sam’s home and loads of other wonderful things – I am really just going to let the pictures do the talking.

I thought we were really lucky as until recently the hobbit holes were just plywood fronts but the film company has now agreed they can have all their facades intact as they are in the films – so much better. We even got to see from a distance the new part of the set which was used for The Hobbit.

Peter Jackson created the set as faithfully to the book as he could knowing that gazillions of LOR fanatics would visit and know if things weren’t right. He even built 6 hobbit holes along the lakeside when only 4 would actually appear in the films just to get things accurate!

It was a pricey tour but how often do you get a chance to go on a movie set? And for such an iconic film? I was really glad we had done it!

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Photos

Hobbiton
The Hobbit set

Hobbiton
Bag End