It’s been an amazing day – my trip to the Hobbiton movie set was truly a great end to this trip to my beloved New Zealand. Tomorrow I’m off to Auckland and the day after back on the plane, home for Christmas.
But this morning I caught a bus to the Alexander farm, where they rebuilt the Shire for the Hobbit movies, this time permanently. Matamata is dairy (and horse) country, there’s hills and hills of rolling meadows, and nestled in between lies this perfect piece of a fictional world Tolkien imagined and Peter Jackson turned into reality.
They kept us in a group the whole time, so no aimless wandering around and we were kept on a schedule by our very nice and enthusiastic guide, but I guess that’s the only way they can handle the many groups tramping through the set, one right after the other, taking in the many, many highlights we know so well from the films.
We did get to take a nice short rest in the Green Dragon, the only house that’s actually a building and not just a beautifully detailed facade. We even got to taste their beer, cider or ginger beer – I chose cider, naturally. 🙂
You can find all the photos I took under the Hobbiton tag.
