We opted for the small van tour with just a small group of people from all over the world. Our tour guide got us on the first Hobbiton tour of the day...what an amazingly beautiful place, even in winter when not all of the trees were budding. This place is touristy, but not Disney touristy. The guide walks you through Hobbiton regaling you with Hobbit and LOTR stories. A few small stories that stuck in my craw:
Peter Jackson found this place because his wife is from the area. She kept after him to visit as she thought it would be exactly what he was looking for...finally he relented and took a trip via helicopter and admitted to his wife that this place is perfect.
One family owns the entire farm that this is built upon. After the first build, Hobbiton was completely torn down. When peter Jackson came back for an additional build as more movies were being made, the family asked him to make this a more permanent build to accommodate them developing this as a tourist destination.
Most of the hobbit holes are only a few meters in depth as interiors were shot in a film studio (but the doors do open).
The party scene for Frodo's 111th Birthday party took three nights to shoot, the extras were given a home brew of 1% beer to promote a party vibe without getting everyone drunk. By night three the 1% beer was gone and everyone was given normal beer, (4%) the third night was much more untidy than the first two nights!
The view coming onto the farm for Hobbiton...this is the point where I almost decided to move to New Zealand...beautiful is an understatement.
Hobbit hole at Hobbiton!
Definitely in his happy place!
The top hobbit hole is Bag End the home of Frodo and Bilbo Baggins...the smaller tree above Frodo's hobbit hole in the picture is not a real tree...after completing the artificial tree, Peter Jackson decided the leaves were the wrong color and the prop. masters had to remove, repaint, and reattach every single leaf
A small hobbit hole.
The level of detail is fun to see.
The Hobbiton bee keeper...neat details!
My favorite photo from our entire trip! Three giants peeking out of a Hobbit hole.
Despite overcast weather, beautiful scenery.
Pulling the cart wasn't so bad it's when they cracked the whip that things got a bit dicey.
The Green Dragon Inn...a pint of cider/beer and then some pano trick photography with the intrepid travelers.
The surly blacksmith!
Just after Hobbiton, we went to the Waitomo Glow Worm Caves. After a brief tour of the limestone caves, we were ushered into a boat, and went through the pitch dark caves to see the most amazing sight of pale blue dots of light. each dot was a glow worm (really a river fly larva). No photos are available of the actual glow worms because the flash would cause the glow worms to go out taking up to about two hours to start to glow again. Glow worms actual glow to attract prey. They dangle long strings below them and prey attracted to the light gets tangled in the sticky strings before being pulled up to be devoured.
The exit of the glow worm caves, the boats are hand pulled by the descendants of the Maori guide that showed the European explorers the location fo the cave. We were impressed with the fact that our guide was a direct descendent of this first Maori guide until she explained that he had over 25 children and she is one of three thousand descendants...
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