Anyone familiar with The Lord of the Rings or The Hobbit books or movies will recognise the name - Hobbiton. A couple of hours from Auckland and about an hour from Tokoroa is the movie set of the village made famous by JRR Tolkein in his books.
We've often included something from The Lord of the Rings in our NZ holidays and this time we planned to spend the day visiting Hobbiton. We drove to The Shires Rest near Matamata and booked into a tour of the movie set. Tours leave from here every 30 minutes for the site a few kms away in a sheep paddock.
When the first 3 movies were made the location sets were all temporary and the locations were all restored to their pre-filming state. Due to public demand (and interest), when The Hobbit was filmed, the village was built from more permanent materials and a tourist attraction was established. Many thousands of people visit this site every week.
There are over 40 hobbit houses - although they're only facades - built into the hills. We wandered along the paths with our tour guide who was able to give us some insights into the filming, for over an hour. There are functional vegetable gardens and fruit trees which certainly add to the ambience of the area. We ended up at The Green Dragon Inn for a drink before making our way back to the bus and The Shires Rest.
It was easy to imagine Bilbo Baggins, Frodo and Gandalf wandering through the village and gardens.
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