Day 15 (Part 1)
Summary: Drove to Matamata, visited the Hobbiton Movie set (aka the Shire!)
Thursday, January 16th
*NOTE: This post has a lot of photos, so it may take some time for them all to load!*
We got up early at 6:15 and it was so chilly in the container! It was difficult to get out from under the covers but we were going to Hobbiton!
We drove an hour to Matamata and arrived at the Hobbiton Movie Set Tour – aka the Shire from the Lord of the Rings movies!
We parked and checked in at the ticket office and queued up for our tour at 8:40. You have to be sure to arrive early because tours leave every 10 minutes and they will not wait for you if you are late.
The parking lot and ticket office is also the location of a cafe and a gift shop. For the tour, you take a bus across the street through a working sheep/cattle farm to the movie set. They play a little video on the bus and we both teared up at the music. We couldn’t believe we were finally there!
The set for the Shire was built on a 1,250 acre farm and it is so beautiful! Our tour guide grew up in the area so she remembers the casting call for the Lord of the Rings movies when she was a kid. She was told she didn’t have the right look for a young hobbit in the movies, but some of her friends and people she knew from the community were cast as extras.
We were dropped off at the set and scurried around taking it all in as our guide led us around the property and told us tidbits about filming.
The structures that were built for the Lord of the Rings movies were designed to be removed after filming so the farmer could reclaim his land for his sheep. So, after filming the original trilogy, they dismantled the Shire and took everything away. Several years later, when The Hobbit movies were set to begin filming, they needed to recreate the Shire once again. This time, the sheep farmer agreed that they would make the structures permanent and open them to the public after filming. I’m so glad they did!
The interiors of the hobbit holes are not furnished, they are actually used as storage for the supplies that the gardeners use to maintain the property. Think hoses and rakes instead of Hobbit-sized tables and beds. Bilbo’s house was finished a bit just on the inside of the door because his door opens in the movie. The rest of the interior was filmed on a movie stage elsewhere.
Bilbo’s house (Bag End)! We weren’t allowed inside (except on party business I suppose, haha), but it was so cool just to see it! The tour guide took photos of anyone who wanted them. It was helpful because she knew all the best angles and framing for photos at the locations.
The oak tree on the hill above Bag End (pictured below) is fake! The director Peter Jackson wanted to follow the description in the book and have an oak tree there, but there are no oak trees on the property! For the Lord of the Rings trilogy, they found an oak tree somewhere and brought it to the set. When they had to make the set all over again for the Hobbit movies, they built the tree from scratch with framing inside to make it last. They had to hand paint and attach each leaf – lots of work for it barely being visible in the movie! In person, the only indication that it was different was the way it blew in the breeze: it was a bit stiff and just didn’t flow the same as a natural tree.
There was one hobbit hole that had an open door and they allowed you to step inside and take a photo. There were a bunch of umbrellas inside I’m assuming for rainy days.
Some of the hobbit doors are large and some are small.
The different types were used for filming techniques when the characters need to appear different sizes but the actors are all average height. For instance, an actor playing a hobbit will interact with a large door to make him appear smaller and an actor playing a wizard will interact with a small door to make him appear bigger. Pretty cool!
The attention to detail is incredible. They had Hobbit-sized clothing on the lines and smoke coming out of the little chimneys!
We got so lucky with a beautiful day! It started out chilly, but you can tell by my photos that I was shedding all my layers as the sun came out.
We got to see Samwise Gamgee’s house! Greg and I love Sam (who doesn’t?) so we were stoked to get photos of his yellow door and garden. He is a gardener after all!
The tour ends at The Green Dragon Inn where they serve you one free drink (aka included in your ticket price)! Greg had the stout and I had the non-alcoholic ginger beer. We had to meet the guide again after about 20 minutes, so we ran around the tavern, taking pictures and videos of all the cute things – which was everything!
I really wish the tour could have been longer, but I understand that they have to move a huge volume of people through the set every day. Even though we wanted to linger at the inn, a time limit prevents it from getting too crowded.
Another interesting fact she mentioned was that 40% of tourists at Hobbiton have never seen the movies or read the books! I was shocked, but I would recommend that anyone visit because you don’t need to know the story to enjoy super cute gardens and interesting movie facts. It definitely adds a whole new level to it though, so definitely give the movies a chance if you plan on visiting!
The bus took us back to the parking lot and we browsed the gift shop. They sold bottles of the beer and ginger beer they brew there and Greg had the idea to buy some, drink it during our trip, and bring home the empty bottle as decoration. So we did! I got the ginger beer and he got the amber ale. The labels are so cute!
We also bought three postcards and stamps and sent one to each set of our parents and one to ourselves. They had a little mailbox to drop them in at the shop.
We ate lunch at the cafe and left even though we wanted to live there forever!
The rest of the day’s adventures are continued in the next post!
Thanks for reading!
-Rebecca
Flourish & Blogs 