By Bonnie and Bill Neely
We spent New Year's Eve in the Southern Hemisphere, a day early for us since we had crossed the International Date Line to get there. It was the second week of summer in New Zealand, so the 4.5 million residents were celebrating in the way we in the United States celebrate Fourth of July — with camping, picnics, swimming, beaches and fireworks. All the facilities and grounds everywhere were so clean with no litter. People were friendly and helpful, and we enjoyed their accent, which to our ears seemed to be a mixture of lilting Australian and British.
The closest town to our City Escape B&B was Matamata, formerly a quiet little agricultural village. Today this is a thriving tourist town, thanks to the largest attraction and business in New Zealand, the Hobbiton Movie Set, where "The Lord of the Rings" and "The Hobbit" trilogies were filmed. The director, writer and producer, Peter Jackson, is a native of Wellington, and he had his scouts fly all over New Zealand to determine the best location to replicate accurately J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Hobbit." The Kaimai Range on the North Island fit, and the setting chosen was the vast and hilly sheep farm belonging to the Alexander family of Matamata. Now even the tourist information center looks like a Hobbit building.
Matamata locals embraced the fact that Hollywood was coming to town and did all in their power to supply the needs of the movie people and help in every way. The company was to create the temporary set and take it down when the filming was complete after a few months, which is the typical Hollywood custom. But it didn't happen that way. Before the set was struck there were torrential rains. People wanted to see the remains of the set, which inspired Russell Alexander to petition the film studios to keep the remaining set of Hobbiton and reconstruct it in permanent materials to create a tourist attraction. Hollywood had never granted permission for a set to be kept, so lawyers spent years getting the proper paperwork.
Tours begin at the Shire's Rest, where you'll find the ticket office, gift store and cafe about 10 minutes' drive outside Matamata. The views of rolling green hills dotted with thousands of sheep and cattle along the way are stunning. No one is allowed to wander Hobbiton on their own, so you will board a bus at Shire's Rest, and your guide will take you on foot all around the adorable, fabled little 11th-century village of Middle Earth. The setting is a picturesque valley amidst tall pastoral hillsides with hundreds of sheep grazing nearby.
The village is complete with 37 little Hobbit holes, each with a business necessary to the everyday life of the community. Visitors can imagine that they are one of the villagers because the village is miniature and real although not actually inhabited. You see the home of the baker, the butcher, the pottery-maker, a seamstress and others. Each house has its little garden, flowers, window box and curtains, and each home has different features and decor. Several of the houses are one-fourth size, some are half-size and some are full size since cameras were placed at different distances when the set was filmed. The imagination of the creators and care for detail thrilled us. Even the clothing hanging on the lines beside houses was diminutive.
When we got to the large home of Bilbo Baggins at the top of Hobbiton we saw the big tree that is prominent in the films. The only unreal tree on the Hobbiton set, it was masterfully created and put together by amazing artists. The huge real tree under which Bilbo's 111th birthday party takes place in the center of the village in the movie is there for your mind's eye to re-create all the festive movie scenes that took place here.
At the end of the tour we stopped at the Green Dragon Inn to have a drink from their list of locally made specialties. Some are alcoholic and some are not, and your selection is a tasty treat included in your tour. You can reserve a banquet tour instead of a normal one and then enjoy a special theme dinner in the Banquet Hall of the Green Dragon.
The really fun visit to Hobbiton in Middle Earth exercises imagination and also body. The two-hour tours require walking and some hill-climbing. The set covers 12 acres with the pond and mill house. The Hobbiton Movie Set is a must-see even if you haven't seen the movies. You'll really want to see them after you've been here.
WHEN YOU GO
We stayed at City Escape B&B in the pretty Kaimai Range of mountains. We had a private apartment over the garage that was clean, modern and much larger than we needed. It had a private balcony overlooking the garden, swimming pool, exercise equipment, chickens, sheep, dog, cats (outside only), and many flowers and trees. We highly recommend this countryside spot, but it is about 25 minutes from a town, restaurants and supplies, so eat before you arrive or bring your groceries.
Websites for other attractions are www.hobbitontours.com, www.tolkiensociety.org/author/biography, www.hobbitontours.com/the-shires-rest and www.cityescape.co.nz.
Bonnie and Bill Neely are freelance writers. To read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.
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