Day 4 - So many Hobbit Holes!
Bilbo’s Bag End Home from Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit
It was a road trip to Hobbiton today in Waikato, New Zealand, south of Auckland. This is the site of the movie set where they film scenes of The Shire for the Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Hobbit trilogy several years later. The set is situated on a the family-run farm of the Alexander family. When the search began to look for suitable locations for The Lord of the Rings film series, location scouts found the farm during an aerial search. Peter Jackson arrived later and it was clear this would be the perfect setting for the films. After getting approval from the family to use the location, the New Zealand Army brought in heavy equipment to make a road into the site from the nearest local road. Additional work on the site included building the facades for 44 Hobbit holes and associated gardens and hedges, a mill and double arch bridge, and erecting a 29-ton oak above Bag End that had been growing near Matamata and which was cut down and recreated on site complete with artificial leaves. The original set for the Lord of the Rings was meant to be temporary and so when The Hobbit Trilogy was set to be filmed, Peter Jackson again asked for use of the Alexander property. However, Alexander only agreed to allow the use if the sets were built as permanent structures so they could give guided tours after filming. Jackson agreed, so today people like us are able to come from far away to see this special place. Our tour today included couples and families from China, France, Belgium, Philippines, the United States and others. Currently under construction are three hobbit holes that are being reconstructed so that you can also tour inside. They are being designed by the original artists who worked on the film and they open as part of the tour December 1st, so we missed it by just 40 days!! However, it was still an impressive tour as you can see on the Photos and Videos page. Highlights included Bilbo’s Bag End Home, the Party Tree, the Mill and the Green Dragon.
On the way back from our Hobbiton tour, we stopped in city of Hamilton to see the Hamilton Gardens. Their emphasis is on different types of garden design and have the unique concept of showcasing the cultural meaning and context of gardens over the past 4,000 years. They have different collections. Some of our favorites from our visit were the Japanese Garden, the Tropical Garden, the Indian Char Bagh Garden and the Surrealist Garden. All of the different gardens were well kept and beautifully designed. We enjoyed our leisure walk through various gardens before our 2 hour drive back to Auckland.
When we got back to town we stopped down at the ferry terminal and had dinner at a restaurant we had seen there called Kestrels. They had amazing fish and chips, especially the chips which were perfectly crispy and the fish was tender with great breading. Then it was back to the house to do some laundry in preparation for our trip to Sydney on Saturday. I can’t believe how fast this week has gone. One more day to enjoy this beautiful country.