We’d worked out that we wouldn’t have as far to travel as
yesterday’s endless supply of winding roads and so allowed ourselves a lie-in.
We were on the road again at 09:30 in search of the town of
Matamata; famous for its nearby landscape being used as Hobbiton from The Lord of
the Rings trilogy… and soon to be featured in the forthcoming two The Hobbit
movies.
We pulled up in the town and decided to pop into the
information centre to find out how to get to the site.
We soon learnt that the
land is privately owned and the only way to get in and look is by doing the
tour – not that surprising really but we weren’t expecting the hefty price-tag
of $66 per person. We decided that we’d travelled all this way and might as
well do it so reluctantly parted with our money.
On the coach, that picked us up at noon, we heard that they
had come back to film the new The Hobbit movies at the same site; so we were in
good spirits realising that if they’d only finished filming there last November
then the place should be in tip-top condition… and it was.
On arrival we were greeted by our tour guides and split into
two groups before commencing our tours. The place is amazing and really is the
whole of Hobbiton built into the hills of the lucky landowners’ farmland. If
you look the entire 360 o around the area you’ll see no signs of
modern day buildings or technology and soon see why this place was perfect for
the set. It was all built for external shots so you can’t enter any of the
holes; we both discussed that: if we owned the land then we’d be pestering New
Line Cinemas to let us create some fully kitted out Hobbit hotel rooms here. There
are some hobbit hotels somewhere in New Zealand but we can’t remember where, we
doubt they’re of the quality we’d discussed in our entrepreneurial chat. You
soon appreciate some of the lengths that everyone involved in the film
production will go to just to get things right. An example of this would be the
oak tree that sits on top of Bag End; this originally was a real oak tree,
weighing in at 26 tonnes, which was cut down and transported to the set before
then being reconstructed piece by piece and then having university students
cover the tree in imported leaves and branches. The first set was knocked down
mostly and was basically completely rebuilt to be just as before when it came
to the 3rd movie. The set has not so long ago received a further
upgrade and extension, along with a new steel and fibreglass oak tree for Bag
End, with the recent filming for those future blockbusters. This whole set has
been allowed to remain for as long as it can stand, and it will probably be
here for some time as the site is maintained by full time gardeners etc who try
to keep everything looking as true to Hobbiton as possible.
We really enjoyed this tour even though it was a bit pricey
and would still recommend it to any fans of the book/ films, preferably save it for a nice day though.
After the Shire we made our way towards Waitomo Caves,
stopping at our campsite for the night – Camp Kiwi Holiday Park in Otorotanga.
Here we prepared and devoured yet another scrumptious meal of: stir fried
noodles with chicken and veg in teriyaki sauce – delish.
Then we sat and watched the sun setting before getting some
shut-eye.
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