Hobbiting around Middle Earth

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We'd told jan and den nothing more than that we were leaving at 10am and all they needed were comfortable walking shoes. Today we were going to Hobbiton! This is the set of The Shire and home of Bag End where Lord of the rings and The Hobbit were filmed. Jan had planned on cooking a Cottage Pie today, and not to let a day out get in the way, she was up frying the mince before 8am. The drive was a couple of hours although when we got to Matamata, Middle Earth wasn't very well signposted at all. We'd asked for directions and been told two different ways, Gareth was threaders and ready to turn back and go home, everyone jumped on the food box for the BBQ leftovers when we next stopped to ask for directions at a Garden Centre. At least here they had little local maps and seemed a bit more in the know about where to direct us. Middle Earth was not as easy to find as we'd thought, and I did have to laugh when Michelle said 'no wonder they had to make it into 3 films for them to get to Mount Doom....."

Anyway, we eventually arrived and parked up, The Reuben/Uncle Daryl bungee had been stretched far too long, and all excited in the Carpark Reubs went flying in the gravel, and added more scuffs to his leg. Earlier this morning he had opened a door onto his foot (whilst looking for Uncle Daryl) and taken the skin off his big toe.

We went to get our tickets and waited for the bus to transport us into The Shire. (Reuben then fell off the bus whilst hi fiving the driver on the way out-3rd accident of the day!) It really was a lovely place, and we learned just how this place became to be in the film. The director of the Triology had been flying over farms to get a good view of what they were like and which one would most suit his film. He decided he liked this one and sent people round on foot for a better look. As they story goes when they knocked on the door, it was the Farmers father who answered. He had no idea what they were taking about when they said they were the production company and were interested in using the land to shoot Lord of the Rings. He had no idea what they were talking about and who was a lord of what ring? More importantly he was in the middle of watching the rugby, and lucky for them it was half time otherwise he wouldn't have answered the door to them at all.

One of the clauses in the contract was that they return the farm to its original state after filming, so after Lord of the Rings, that's what they did. The film came out, and many locals recognised the landscape and kept coming to visit only to be a little disappointed to see nothing more than large rabbit holes where the hobbits houses once stood. Part of the set remained as bad weather had halted the removal, and when the farmer realised he could be onto a winner here, the Hobbit films were made and this time the set was permanent. Now we have Hobbiton and people from all over the world come to visit. The place is still a working farm with 14,000 sheep to tend to, but this little tourist attraction must now give the family a bit of pocket money and a better pension than sheep farming ever could. Bet that guy is glad he opened the door.

Now I don't think any of us are die hard LoTR / Hobbit fans, but we've all seen the films (I remember going with my sister and falling asleep through one of them once as it was that long) but it was really interesting to learn about how they shot the films, and the kind of intricacies of the set design. I marvelled at the trees and how lovely they were, not even realising they weren't entirely real. Right down to the last leaf that had been ordered in from Taiwan, and individually wired to the tree. It was lovely to look at all the little Hobbit holes and the tiny Hobbit washing on the line outside. If they had real life Hobbit villages I'm sure it would be a nice place to live?

The tour finished up with a beer in the Green Dragon pub, and Reuben had a Ginger beer. Jan and Den had a good photo by the fireplace which was a lovely cosy setting, and I bought a big cheese scone which tasted great.

Back at the house the boys had a quick turnaround ready to go watch Carey play the final rugby game of the season, the girls decided to stay home and chill out and do a bit of packing ready for the beach weekend. Jan and Cath were having a good old catch up over a pile of ironing, talking about days back in Wales and what so and so is up to nowadays having a good old gossip. We googled the news story that we'd heard about when we'd picked the campers up, which was about a couple who had gone missing and their Van was found in bits at Haast pass. (See link) It seemed they had been caught in a landslide, and only one of their bodies has so far been recovered. It was quite scary to think how dangerous the place can be, and we had only driven that route a couple of days previous. It's a wake up call to any of those who take the chance of driving at night or parking up, or ignoring the warnings. We went to bed only to be woken up by the boys coming home-Carey victorious having scored a 'great' try(!)



https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=haast+pass+van+found&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en&client=safari

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Comments

[Joanne Hornby]

Emma's perfect house
Mmmm Emma wondered - I wonder how much one of these goes for ?

[JAN]

TOUR
I am only just opening these now and I am enjoying but I can't open them in order, so I am completely CONFUSED....NOTHING NEW THERE THEN !!!!!