Hobbiton, the Land of Hobbit

I think we all know this movie. “The Lord of the Rings” film trilogy. A movie based on the epic fantasy novels written by John Ronald Reuel Tolkien. These novels were published in three volumes (1954 and 1955) and each volume consists of two books. “The Fellowship of the Ring” is the first volume. “The Two Towers” as the second volume and the third volume is “The Return of the King”. The trilogy of “The Lord of the Rings” became one of the most popular literary works of the 20th century's and translated into 38 languages.

The film trilogy of “The Lord of the Rings” itself was directed by Peter Jackson and distributed by New Line Cinema. With a big budget about $285 million and the entire film project took about eight years. We can see famous actor and actress in this movie, like: Elijah Wood (as the hobbit Frodo Baggins), Sean Astin, Andy Serkis (as the treacherous Gollum), Ian McKellen (as the wizard Gandalf), Viggo Mortensen ( as Aragorn), Liv Tyler (as Arwen), Cate Blanchett (as Lady Galadriel), etc.

One of the most interesting from this movie is the hobbit also called "Halfling". They are small creature, smaller than dwarves. In "The Lord of the Rings" movie, we can find Frodo, Bilbo, Pippin and Merry as the hobbit derived from the Shire. They usually have height only half of the ordinary man (about 60 to 120cm, an average of 100 cm). They have pointy ears like elves. Another characteristic from the hobbit are their legs like a rabbit but strong, so they don’t need footwear. Their favorite food is mushroom, they eat seven times in a day. Hobbit can live up to 130 years. They are experts in terms of plants and flowers, so they have beautiful garden. That’s the point of this hub. Hobbits are described by J. R. R. Tolkien as an an ancient little people, uncomplicated, shy of Big Folk, and well-farmed countryside.

From this hub, I’ll take you tour in the real hobbit land. The land where the hobbit living. Actually this isn’t the place where the real hobbit stay and live with their community. But it’s a part of the movie setting of “The Lord of the Rings”, the home of Bilbo and Frodo in Peter Jackson's movie. I’ll show how this place looks so beautiful. This place is located just two hour drive south of Auckland and one hours easy drive from Hamilton, Rotorua, Tauranga. The exactly place is at the lush farmland of the Waikato town of Matamata, New Zealand. Although much of the set from the movie was deconstructed, but hobbit fans can still visit this place. They can wander among the hobbit holes. They can listen to the commentary about how it was all created from the tour guide.

New Zealand itself is a beautiful location where the entire " The Lord of the Rings" trilogy was filmed. The town of Matamata in the Waikato with beautiful hills and emerald green grass become the perfect setting and the peaceful for the Hobbit home in Middle-earth. There’s one interesting in this place. “A party tree” is the main focus from Peter Jackson. This tree is the primary reason he chose the location. He want this tree symmetrical, large and overhanging a pond. With a helicopter he scoured the countryside to find this place. We can see the pictures below.

The site construction was started in March 1999 and movie commenced in December that year. The producers need bulldozers, diggers, trucks, loaders, graders and other heavy machinery to build the film background. Film companies made a new path to reach the site about 1.5 km and the New Zealand Army was contracted to finish the road. Thirty-seven hobbit holes were created on a grassy hill. All the holes are environmentally friendly, because all the walls are made of soil and grass as the roof. When the movie finished, the film company wants to destroy all the hobbit's houses. However, local residents received thousands of requests from Hobbit fans for not doing it, so the film company had changed their mind and agrees to not destroy the hobbit houses. Now, although the hobbit houses have been abandoned and become the homes of sheep, but the village of Hobbiton was not lonely anymore. Millions tourist from all over the world visited the hobbit's houses every year. There’s a beautiful emphasis from this place, lake and the 'party tree'.

We can enjoy the tour as the package from "the Hobbiton movie set and farm tour", Matama, New Zealand. We can go the hobbiton by bus and enjoy another great activity like farm tour. This is special tour, because we passed the working sheep farm (about 12,000 sheep and 200 beef cattle) with beautiful scenery across to the Kaimai Ranges. The tour guide will explained to you about fascinating details on how the Hobbiton set was created. We can visit the farm of Alexander family. Based on the history, the Alexander moved to the 500 hectare property, in 1978. At that year, it has been farmed as a traditional beef farm and New Zealand sheep. The major sources of income are wool, mutton and bee came from approximately 13,000 sheep and 300 Angus beef cattle. From this tour we can get a knowledge and experience of sheep farming in New Zealand. The farm tour package includes participating in a sheep shearing demonstration. At the end of demonstration, the tourist will be able to bottle feed lambs and pet the hand reared sheep. Don’t worry about accommodation, because there are full bar and catering facilities during this tour. Hobbiton movie set and farm tour depart daily from Auckland and Tauranga. All tours are fully guided.

****I hope you enjoy all the pictures and the video here!*****

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