Visiting Hobbiton

I have been looking forward to writing about my Hobbiton tour for a long time. If you've ever seen any of the Hobbit or Lord of the Rings movies, you know what the Shire is. Well, I actually got to VISIT it and take a tour!! The set is located in Matamata, which is a town on the North Island of New Zealand. We arrived at the tour center and loaded a bus with a tour guide who would take us directly into the Shire.

But first, a little bit about Hobbiton...The Alexander farm was chosen by Sir Peter Jackson while he was scouting locations for filming. It's a sheep farm near Waikoto with rolling green hills and over 1,000 acres of land. The New Zealand army helped the film crew build the set, which would become the Shire we know from the LOTR films. The demolished it when they were done, but when the crew came back to film the Hobbit films, they built a permanent set, which is what remains today.

Stepping onto this set felt like literally stepping into the films. Everything felt so magical and real. We started the film at the entrance to Hobbiton, where our tour guide gave us some historical information (mostly the information above^). Then, we were led along the path past hobbit holes, gardens, the field where Bilbo's birthday party took place, and up to Bag-End, complete with a "no admittance except on party business" sign.

Our tour guide was awesome and knew a ton about the movies and their history. We learned that there are two types of hobbit holes: small and large. Basically, there are small holes so that Gandalf could walk by them and look human sized and large ones so that the hobbits could look hobbit-sized next to them. We got to stand inside the door of a large hobbit hole, too!

After our tour, we headed to the Green Dragon Inn, which is gathering place and a pub. We got to try a complimentary beer which is brewed there. You could choose from a stout, a cider, and an ale. You could also purchase more if you wanted to try more than one.

After everyone had drank their beer, we moved on to a tent to eat. This was optional, but we chose to do the tour and meal combo (there's also a brunch and tour option) because we chose to go around lunchtime and we wanted to see what the food would be like! The meal was actually really neat - it was in the Banquet Hall, and we got to sit with other people on the tour, which allowed us to meet new people, share stories with them, and learn about other places. The food was buffet style and delicious.

That was pretty much it for the tour, so we got back on the bus and went back to the tour center. We checked out the gift shop and then got back on the road.

As to how we chose this tour, it is the only tour of the set available, so choosing a company wasn't difficult. I also thought the pricing was good for both a tour and a full meal, which helped us decide that it was worth the money. The tour cost $100 NZD per person for the tour and meal combo, or about $68 USD.

If you have any questions about the tour or our time in New Zealand, be sure to contact me! If anyone has done any LOTR tours or sightseeing in New Zealand, I would love to hear your stories!