A journey into Middle-Earth with Peter Jackson

Well, the last part of this three day excursion was the journey to Hobbiton, the complete movie set of the fictitious land in Tolkien's Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. Before I get too into the movie set, I want to explain the title. Tom and I had a running joke for the later part of the tour given that at the beginning, another tourist asked if he could take Tom's picture, saying he looked like Peter Jackson. Thus, for the remainder of the tour Tom was the Director. Anyway, the tour began on a very busy property adjacent the farm land where the set remained. They piled us on to a bus from the bustling commotion, and transported us through farmland to the actual set. The owners of the land were wise when they asked to have the sets left in rather than destroyed at the end of the filming, and a very lucrative business was born. We got a few glances of the hobbit holes as we rolled over hills, and were promptly dropped off at the beginning of the walking tour. The guides were very knowledgeable, and took us around the dirt paths to see all the wondrous sights that is the Middle-Earth, Peter Jackson envisioned.

The quaint hobbit holes were in near pristine condition, wildflowers tended by groundskeepers, a real vegetable garden, and only mild weathering of the set. The hobbit holes came in 3 sizes, 60%, 90%, and 100%. Many of the shots were done with children stand ins using the 60% life size holes. The set was much larger than either Tom or I had imagined, and there were many of these little houses built into the hillsides. Although many people were jumping in and out of the way, I did manage to get a few nice shots to give you a feel of the set.

It was absolutely gorgeous, tons to see and so very detailed. We also learned that only 2 of the holes actually had some appreciable interior and were used as backdrop alone. At the top of the hill, the 100% representation of Bag End, the home of both Bilbo and Frodo Baggins. This one had a bit of interior, but only enough to create the illusion of a full house for the outside shots or where people were standing in the doorway. Interesting though, the tree above was actually 100 percent artificial, and it was dismantled and rebuilt for the hobbit movies since chronologically it was before the Lord of the Rings (On the first picture in the post, that is the tree on the far left).

And to prove I was there, a picture of me in front of bag end. Anyway, we wandered down the hill to the next hobbit hole, which was the house of Sam, and was also partially done on the inside and 100% size.

As the tour started to close we headed to the last large structure, the Green Dragon, a lifesize building across a stone bridge. Following the thematic sign posts, we arrived at the bridge and the one building that had been modified from the films, the mill, where they added in several components. We then wandered into the Green Dragon which was surprisingly playing some Celtic music that I recognized; I guess they didn't have any hobbit music on hand.

With Peter Jackson at my side, we wandered in where we enjoyed the thematic environment and shared a bit of Cider before heading back to the car and back to Auckland.

But there was one last thing to see on the way out, the last remaining actor on set enjoying an afternoon snack!