Hobbiton!

 

1st publication 1937 Dust Jacket artist : Tolkien! 

I'm pretty sure that most people out there are familiar with JRR Tolkien's works.  So we could not call our visit to the north island of New Zealand complete without a visit to the only spot on earth that can be called "Middle Earth"!  For superfans, check out the noted link!

The Hobbiton movie set is located near Matamata, about a 2 hour drive from central Auckland, about 45 minutes from our location in Hamilton.  As we traveled along the terrain it became more and more what I had imagined The Shire would look like!  Fun fact: Peter Jackson chose this location for Hobbiton while flying over the area searching for the perfect spot and the Alexander Sheep farm was it!  The two principals have come up with an awesome partnership to preserve this piece of fantasy envisioned by Tolkien!

Although, as you will see from my little slideshow of our photos, we got a taste of fall on the North Island!  A bit of rain did not dampen our visit too much and we enjoyed the tour very much!  Our guide, Luke, was upbeat and had a wealth of knowledge about the history of this Hobbiton!  The original set was was constructed  from March 1999 and filming for the Lord Of the Rings ran for 3 months starting in December of the '99.  Most of the original set was demolished after filming.  The present Hobbiton set for the Hobbit films, took about 2 years.  Filming ran for 12 days in October of 2011!  This time the set was constructed to be a permanent location to keep Hobbiton alive!   They just started construction on two complete hobbit homes that will give fans the opportunity to go inside and see how a hobbit lived!

Being a fan and admirer of Tolkien I could go on and on about his mind and the wonderment of creating not only a set of entertaining books, but also of creating, cultures, societies and even a language (spoken and written!) all with their own history to go along with it!  What an amazing imagination!  I often forget he was also quite the artist and many of the illustrations in his books were his!  Just google Tolkien art and you will see what I mean!

I did have to have a chat with Gandalf before we headed over to Hobbiton!  

To quote another big LOTR fan (Nolan!)  There is only one Dragon in Bywater, and its green!  

Our visit to Hobbiton was definitely worth the time and effort.  Even enduring the rain did not diminish the experience (although a sunny day would have enhanced been just that much better)!

To top off this great day, upon our return to Hamilton, Munchie whipped up some killer mini lamb chop appetizers, with garlic shrimp and loaded potato skins!

Just a few more days left here in New Zealand!

Cheers to all!