Hobbiton

I had seen a pamphlet that said the old set for Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy, and the new Hobbit movie, were open for the public to tour. I never really liked the books nor any of the first movies, and haven't seen the last, but thought it would be an interesting visit...so we went.  We were not disappointed.  It cost $75 each, but our guide was great, we learned a lot about movie making, and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.  I had read, in trip advisor, to go on the first tour so you had lots of time for photos and no tours ahead to spoil the shots.  So, we got up at 6 (really?, on a holiday?) and headed out to be on the 9am tour...that was a great tip as we had no people ahead of us to ruin our photos, and we didn't have to wait for any of them either!

 There was such attention to detail, it was utterly amazing!  Apparently, Peter Jackson (the director) had special sheep imported (none available here), even though the sheep are only seen for a few seconds. 

 This is the Shire, looking up to Bilbo Baggins house.  The area was chosen because it already resembled the description in the books, hills and knolls...all they did was add the facades!  Some facades are larger than others, depending on whether Gandalf is going to be in the shot, the distance from the characters, etc.

 There were the cutest little cottages!  Gardeners and maintenance running everywhere to keep them looking like this.

 Almost all the vegetation is real, except this big oak tree on top of Bilbo's home.  It's totally fake, but you'd never know it.  All the lichen on the fence posts and other wood is also fake. Most of the rock facades are fake as well, but look totally realistic.

 What fun!  Too cute!

 The gardener told me they really have to water the grass and plants close to the roof tiles because the slate heats up and burns the vegetation.

 Absolutely lovely gardens!

 Looking down from Bilbo's home.

 This is our new home..Ralph's just about to go inside, and I'm painting on the small easel!

 I think this one's a bit small for Ralph!

 At the end, we went to the Green Dragon Tavern and they gave us an ale or cider, a bit early at 10:30am...but it's 5 o'clock somewhere.  The tavern too was very interesting in that one end of the it is on a smaller scale than the other.  This was so Bilbo would appear the right size in the tavern shots, and Gandalf would appear far larger.

This was definitely one of our more enjoyable days and we'd highly recommend a visit if you travel to New Zealand!