Well, you can’t go to New Zealand any more without being bombarded with The Lord of the Rings this, and The Lord of the Rings that… but somehow, over our last three trips to the Land of the Long White Cloud, we’ve actually managed to not see ANY of The
Lord of the Rings or The Hobbitty type stuff or places. But seeing this was our third trip to Tauranga and the last two times we hired a car and went to the Waitomo Glow Worm Caves (I wish I was a glow worm, a glow worm is never glum, for how can you be unhappy when the sun shines out your bum!), and Rotorua to the Whakarewarewa Thermal reserve with all the boiling mud and delightful fresh sulphurous air.
So, this time we thought we would hire a car and head to Hobbiton to check out where the filthy little hobbitses lived. Had a pleasant drive out there, takes about 40 minutes and only one toll road ($1.50 – you know, rumour has it, that NZ actually takes tolls OFF their bridges and roads etc, once they’re paid for… I know! Unheard of! But I digress). We arrived about fifteen minutes before our tour time and had a potter around the Shire’s Rest tour centre/gift shop/cafe. We then got loaded onto a bus called ‘Gandalf’. Yep, it was going to be a very Disneyesque sort of day.
We went for a short drive over the rolling hills of Waikato and got the run down on how Peter Jackson chose the Alexander’s farm from the air when touring the region via helicopter. It was primarily a working sheep farm and there is still plenty of lamb and mutton walking around and of course, lots of the obligatory electric fencing. We got dropped off at Hobbiton for our walking tour and were give a rather odd little guide, whose name escapes me, but whose lisp will probably be with me forever.
Our guide kinda sounded like he had drunk the Kool-Aid. Everything he pointed out to us was said as factual reference but somehow always within the movie/book narrative – like he believed hobbits were real, and so naturally we all should too…. eg: ‘Hobbits like
to leave things outside their homes that show what their professions are. The bakers will have loaves of bread and wares to sell in a small stall outside their home, and over there you can see the potter’s hole surrounded by pottery and ceramic pots. And they even like to paint symbols of their professions on their letter boxes!’ etc.
He did seem to break the odd reality he was selling, long enough to tell us things like ‘the mould and moss you see growing over all the ‘old’ fences here was rapidly created by throwing around a lot of yoghurt.’ Go figure. Anyway, we had no idea what to expect when we got there, and I was thinking there’d be half a dozen hobbit hole doors/window and chimneys and Bilbo’s house (which has a name but I’ve forgotten it) and that’d be about it. But it far exceeded my expectations with about 42 fantastic hobbit houses, the field where Bilbo had his 111th birthday party which was set up with a marquee, and loads of hobbit ‘artefacts’ laying around. Everything was in quaint miniature and the tour wound around Hobbiton landing you in the Green Dragon inn for a free ale or cider. There were cute stone bridges, a water mill, a duck/swan pond, quaint thatched roofs, tiny chairs, and loads of other cute hobbity stuff. Though we did spend half the day wondering if Peter Jackson was ripping off the poor hobbitses, because none of their letterboxes worked… and I ask you, how is a hobbit supposed to receive his royalty cheque if he can’t open his
letterbox?!
It rained while we were there… and by rained, I mean a small monsoon came through that temporarily turned all the walkways into brooks, drenched our shoes. We all ended up with mud splashing back up to our knees and making all the paths slippery. The rain was okay but it did make it rather difficult to hold an umbrella and take a photo. So hint for new players, take an umbrella, a rain jacket, some shoes you don’t mind trashing and don’t worry, as it seems to pass as quickly as it comes. By the time we got past Bilbo’s house with the big fake tree (which I’m reminded is called Bag End), it was all blue skies and absolutely gorgeous, though a little on the humid side for NZ. All up I loved it, and would highly recommend people go visit the place if they have ever seen and enjoyed any of The Lord of the Rings Movies or the Hobbit movies (second one comes out here this week – a
fortnight before Australia gets it). The attraction itself seems to be going from strength to strength as more permanent structures are put in place and the food at the Shire’s Rest cafe after the tour was fantastic – but be warned, meals are NOT hobbit sized and you
cold easily share the Fush and Chips. 😛
