Hobbiton

[purplecat]

So, yes, on the Sunday in New Zealand I went to Hobbiton. In fact I took a guided minibus trip that also included some caves with glow-worms in them which, while pretty, didn't quite live up to the hype and wouldn't allow photos.

I wasn't quite sure what to expect at Hobbiton - it is a movie set after all, but actually - as both the guide on the minibus and the one he handed us over to once we got there explained - the set used for Lord of the Rings had been completely removed at the end of filming. However, over the subsequent years the farm started making a lot of money from driving fans up to the empty field where the set had been, so when The Hobbit movies came round they proposed that the film build everything for real and then operate it in an ongoing fashion as a tourist attraction. This is what is there today and it's pretty impressive. You can't go in to most of the hobbit holes, but I gathered they all had an actual room behind the door (mostly used for storage).

To be honest, I have a lot of photos of misc hobbit holes so I've bunged them all into the directory which I use for random Friday pictures, so you can see them as they pop out amid all the castles, fossils and random neolithic stones. Even so, and with some strategic weeding, there are a lot of photos.




This is the shop which, if you are not a purchaser of models, was honestly a little disappointing.






That prominent tree is the Party Tree.




I think this is the Sackville-Baggins's












That hobbit hole at the top is Bag End.


Each hobbit hole was supposed to have hints outside as to the interests of the occupants. This one is a beekeeper.


... and here are their wares.




That tree above Bag End is, apparently, the only fake tree in the place. Peter Jackson wanted a tree above Bilbo's home and there wasn't one, so one was built.


My phone camera struggling with the Zoom a bit here, but that building is The Green Dragon.


This was the photo opportunity hobbit hole.






One of the Bag End windows.




The bench where Bilbo and Gandalf sat blowing smoke rings.


Bag End.




If I understood correctly this is the Gamgee dwelling.


The party field.

New this year, apparently, were two furnished hobbit holes (tour groups got split in two and you only saw one, but we were assured both were the same). We were told we could touch or pick up anything not nailed down (unsurprisingly, most things were nailed down).










These made me thing of ladyofastolat














I'm not sure if you can tell, but this is the Proudfoot family tree. Presumably it was the Proudfoot (Proudfeet?) house.


A Doll's Hobbit Hole!


















You could turn the pages of this, but it was glued to the table.




An indoor well?




I was expecting the Miller's house to be uglier, all things considered, but perhaps this is before or after Sandyman moved into a house built by Sharkey's Men.


It was clearly going to be impossible to get a shot of The Green Dragon without modern people in the way.




We got a complementary beer in The Green Dragon. A choice of a stout, a pale ale, a cider or ginger beer. I went for the pale ale which was inoffensive. Here it is posed in front of some supplies.










Our guide was, frankly, much more interested in wildlife than hobbits and so was eager to point out the eels in the lake.

Comments

[senmut]

Nice! Thank you for sharing these.

[purplecat]

It was a great place to visit!

[librarygeek]

I want to move in. 😂👍🤷‍♀️📕📜

Thank you for these! 🟢🥰

[purplecat]

It was lovely!

[vivdunstan]

Marvellous! Thanks for sharing :)

[purplecat]

I'm assuming you guessed correctly...

[vivdunstan]

Yes indeedy :)

[turlough]

So many cool photos! As someone who's never seen the movies (as a long-time book fan from prehistory I refuse to sully my inner vision of Middle-Earth :-) I'm pleasantly suprised by how nice the hobbit holes look inside. Very cosy! The doll hobbit hole was a particularly nice touch.

[purplecat]

Mileage varies of course. The Lord of the Rings movies we mostly pretty faithful - except where they weren't and I just ignore those bits - and the visuals were mostly amazing and fairly in keeping with what I had imaged (beyond the fact that Aragorn and the Hobbits had rather stragglier hairstyles). The Hobbit movies might almost be a different story altogether.

[elisi]

Oh wow. Thank you so much for sharing. And I think the little dolls house is my favourite. <3

[purplecat]

There were so many details in that Hobbit hole. I think you could go a second time and notice a completely new set of things.

[sallymn]

Oh how wonderful! I would like to go there one day. The furnishings in the houses are so.... hobbity :) and I love that cookbook!

[purplecat]

It is very hobbity - though definitely gentle-hobbits with a fair bit of wealth. There was a lot of space and stuff.

[fred_mouse]

Thank you for sharing all of these. It is all so green! I was having lots of fun looking at the veggie patches and trying to identify the plants.

[purplecat]

According to the guide everything outside (except for the fake tree on top of Bag End) was real and there is a team of gardeners who look after it, grow veg and so on.

[thisbluespirit]

Aw, great photos! The furnished Hobbit hole looks amazing, and it all looks (unsurprisingly) so pretty round there!

[purplecat]

It's all farmland round about - so very pastoral, though you could nearly always see a mountain. However, all the really spectacular mountains are down south, I believe even accounting for the fact that Auckland, for reasons best known to itself, is built on top of 58 volcanos.