Day 216 – Matamata
Hobbiton Movie Set
I’ve been travelling to New Zealand frequently over the last couple of years, but this has been something that has alluded me every time. I am excited to finally go to the Hobbiton Movie Set (used for the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit trilogies).
The 175km drive from Auckland took around 2.5 hours on pretty much empty roads. We started the drive at 8:20am and arrived at the car park around 11:00am. Google Maps took us on a short route, but it meant lots of smaller roads and intersections. I don’t recommend it unless you are used to driving in New Zealand. This website might help with some of the road rules if you are not. https://www.newzealand.com.au/faqs/driving-in-new-zealand/.
The price to enter Hobbiton Movie Set is $84 NZD / $80.12 AUD, which includes a guided tour of the site (which is a former farm) and a drink at the Green Dragon Inn. You can only visit Hobbiton on a tour. The official website states that it’s good to book in advanced instead of just rocking up. However, we just bought them at the ticket office after we arrived.
The tickets were for the next available session which was at 12:30pm. However, as we were walking around the store (elvan cloak for $900 NZD / $859.54 AUD anyone?), an announcement was made, that 8 empty slots were available on the 11:30am tour. It was a first come first served basis and we were lucky enough to get them.
The tour is done really well. A bus takes you to the Shire/Hobbiton, while the tour guide plays videos explaining the site, with messages from the site’s owner and from the movie’s director Peter Jackson.
Hobbiton, was actually discovered by Peter Jackson’s scouts in 1998, while doing aerial scouting, and they worked with the farm owner to build the Shire. The farm is a 1,250 acre sheep and beef farm. The NZ government allowed the NZ military to assist with the construction projects around the country, including the road to Hobbiton that the bus drives on.
Everything is in miniature / Hobbit sized
You get to walk around the site, with the tour guide giving you plenty of information about how items were made, what scenes they were from, and how they were filmed. After the original Lord of the Rings trilogy was filmed, everything was temporary, but due to the more recent Hobbit films, the site was made permanent in 2009.
The grass is definitely greener in the Shire
There are a total of 39 Hobbit Holes. The highlight of course was Bilbo Baggins’ house Bag End. We got some other people from the tour, to take some photos of us in front of the house, but even after posing and them doing a countdown, they never actually took the photo! This happened twice during the Hobbiton tour with different people, where they failed to actually take the photo. As the site was crowded, we could not go back to retake the photos 🙁
Bag End
All in all, the tour was nice, and the drink at the Green Dragon Inn was a nice way to end the tour. The drink is either a Cider, Dark Beer, another choice of beer or a non alcoholic beverage. After the bus came to pick us up, we all were dropped back at the main office.
The tour took a total of 2 hours.
Inside the Green Dragon Inn
After the tour, as the weather started to turn, so we drove back to Auckland using the highways as it is a lot easier. If your a fan of the series, I highly recommend going to Hobbiton. I am a fan of the original Lord of the Rings, but not a super fan (I have not seen or have found motivation to ever watch the extended movies) but it still enjoyed the experience. I think its worth doing once.