Hobbiton

When we decided to visit NewZealand on our tour , we looked at different places you could visit,  and Hobbiton was high up there on our list. Hobbiton is the film set for the Hobbit village in Lord of the Rings and was great fun to visit. You get a guided tour, which was excellent, we learnt so much about the filming and what went on behind the scenes. Although we really enjoyed the film we aren't what you would call Lord of the Rings groupies but there were some people there who were, they added to the fun though, they were so excited and kept quoting lines from the film. Strangely one of them looked like a hobbit, a tall hobbit, but still hobbitish! 

There is so much detail put into everything on the set, from the plants right up to the houses with some even having washing drying on the line. A lot of the houses had a theme, for example one had little beehives and honey for sale outside it. Another had a wood fire going with fish being smoke over it. The houses were built to different scales so that the actors looked the right size beside them. Gandalf stood beside houses which were built 60% to size so he looked taller. To make Gandalf look taller than the Hobbits he would be filmed nearer to the camera while they were stood further back. 

The film set is on a working sheep farm, this farm was chosen because it had a lone tree, set aside from other trees , which was used for the party tree. The farm also is set in the middle of nowhere and  where the film set is, right in the middle of a very big field,  there are no signs of the 20th century, such as electric pylons. A no fly zone was set up over the film set but apparently two pilots did fly over it, resulting in them losing their  flying licenses. 

These two houses are built to different scales, if David was stood up in the lower picture, he would look a lot taller than he does in the photo above, when compared to the house size.

There are a few houses whose doors open but there is nothing inside they are just used as storage cupboards. In Bilbo Baggins house there is some stuff put just inside the door, on one side, so that it could be filmed with the door ajar. 

So much effort was put into the set, particularly with the trees. Some even had their leaves stripped off and artificial ones put on so they would look the right type of trees, now you might think why didn't they just use the right tree, well they would grow to the wrong size. 

At the end of the tour you visit The Green Dragon Pub, where you can get one free drink. I had the cider which was delicious, David had water as he was driving and the only other non alcoholic option was ginger beer.  Strangely, the barman used to live where we do and knows one of our children!

David is well known for hogging the fire at home and he just went towards it naturally over there. It was a scorching day! 

Flaunting my cider at David.

During the tour we visited every part of the film set, so I  took lots of photos and have had to be very selective in what I have chosen to show here. 

Some of the sheep sheltering under a tree from the sun. The farm also has Angus cattle. 

It was great fun and we are so glad we made the effort to go, as it is out  in the sticks as they say, as it needs to be.  The film set was actually nearly dismantled but a storm halted the process and while it was on, the farmer who owns the land decided he would like to keep it and use it for tours. In a way this was good as it was used again for the Hobbit films but also it gives people a chance to see it.