There and back again - Hobbiton

• Now who's a good nerd?
• Me! Me!

So no way around it, is there?
One MUST go to Hobbiton....
And so we did.

First look at Hobbiton

When we decided to visit New Zealand, the main draw for us were its impressive and diverse landscapes. That happen to feature prominently in the Lord of the Rings movies (and many, many others).

One of many hobbit holes

During our time here we will visit several of these landscapes, but we also went to Hobbiton. This is no landscape, but a fictional village: the actual movie set of the Hobbit village. Kept and maintained as it was during filming. Of course the owners are making a fortune doing tours of it, and it is pretty touristy, but also so much fun!

The Party Tree and Sam's house

We booked our tour online, and waited at the Shire's Rest (I know!) for our guide. Everyone gets into a big coach, and we drive onto the farm where the actual set is. During that short drive they show a short video telling a bit about the logistics of filming, and our driver pointed a few things out in the landscape. And then we are there, out of the coach we walked into the village through Gandalfs Cutting.

Bag End

It really is nice, seeing the whole village appear around you, even when it is quite full of tourists. The little hobbit holes all around, all the detail that went into making it look like a live village, and those particular features (the party tree, Bag End, the Green Dragon Inn, etc.) that look so familiar due to the movies. Needless to say we loved it. 

Green Dragon, bridge and the Mill

And they really do make an effort to keep it top notch. All the flowers and gardens are meticulously kept, smoke comes out of the chimneys and they re-leaf (new verb!) the one artificial tree every few years. 

After a walk around the little lanes of Hobbiton, shooting all the obligatory photos, marvelling at the different holes, and learning new trivia facts from our guide, we headed down to the Green Dragon for a drink. 

Inside the Green Dragon

During filming this was just a façade (Hobbiton was an exterior set), but for the tourist tours they built the inside of the Green Dragon as well. The inn is pretty much identical to the one in the movies, and again, it's well done. We sat down to enjoy our beers (ginger beer and stout) in front of the fire. Before long it was time to leave the Shire, and go back to the real world.

Back to the real world