I am not a fan of Lord of The Rings. I never read the books, have never watched the movie and never wanted to. Why? Because….I’m team Harry Potter. I know my reason is such a non sense, weird, shallow and unacceptable. Judge me, I don’t care.
Why the heck I wanted to pay $80 to step my feet in the Hobbiton?? Because I wanted to visit Bilbo’s neighborhood. Bilbo. Not Frodo. Yes, I did watch The Hobbit. đ
The History
Peter Jackson had been looking for a perfect farm for LOTR movie set, and in the late 1998, he finally found it. It’s beautiful view consist of a lake and big tree and the field contour resembled closely to The Shire – the habitat of Hobbit. The farm itself owned by Alexander who has thousands of sheep and hundreds of cattle. After having a negotiation, in 1999, part of the farm started to transform to a miniature village. The building process took about 9 months. If you know what they did to create this place, you’ll be fascinated. They went very detail of every single material in Hobbiton. The trees, the leaves, all the plant – were chosen and created very carefully. So yes, it is artificial. Most of them.
You know the Oak tree behind Bilbo’s house? It was originally from
Matamata, a town located 1,5 km away from this farm. The tree was chopped down, each branches was also numbered and chopped, then transported and bolted together. It’s even more insane when it comes to the leaves. Peter imported it from Taiwan just for the sake of it’s shape! Well, that’s just an example of how crazy detail they made it. You will be more surprised if you heard all the secret reveals behind this movie set.
FYI, the shooting only took 3 months with ONLY few minutes movie scene result. God damn it, Peter!
The Tour
We gathered in Matamata Hobbiton I-Site before taken to the Hobbiton by a big bus with a guide who will escort us for about 2 hours. The guide will explain all the story behind the movie set, behind scene per-scene of Hobbiton in the movie, and they will also happily help you to take the picture.
We started our journey from this entrance..
then continue to this beautiful small garden. Some of fruits and vegs in the picture were real, and some were fake.
And visiting these hobbit holes, each holes has different design and very crazy amazing detail…
At the very top of the village, here lies Bilbo Baggin’s house.
Look! That is the tree I talked about!
And the trip continue to… Green Dragon
This is slice of picts of Green Dragon. Aw I wish I could stay for a night in that house …
my most fave view goes to this group of sheeps…look at their reflection on the lake! Lovely isn’t it?
Our journey ended in Green Dragon Bar. O.. I love the interior! Feels like transported to The Hobbit world! I wish all the hobbit holes also have interior like they did to the bar. Must be more interesting! Anyway, in here we got complimentary drinks, I ordered ginger ale. Sooo good to have it while watching a nice view of Hobbiton at sunset time.
I suggest you to take 4 pm tour like I did, so you also have the chance to see Hobbiton at dusk time. So pretty đ
Almost all the corner in Hobbiton are definitely picturesque. Take as many picture as you can so that your $80 more worth it :p
How to Get Here
– Fly to Auckland will be the best choice rather than to Wellington, it’s closer.
– Rent a car in Auckland and drive south to Matamata, approximately about 3 hours drive. Prepare your international driving license & your original driving license from your country to rent a car. If you don’t have international driving license, you have to translate your driving license in car rental office and pay $70
– Possible to do round trip, but it’s better to stay for a night in Matamata
– Recommended place to stay : Tower Road Motel Matamata. Cheap, clean and super nice staff đ
