Hobbiton

Hello again. It is almost 6am on Tuesday March 27 in the Ilikai Hotel at Waikiki, Hawaii.

 We will soon be getting ready for our 7 hr tour that includes Pearl Harbor and other historical landmarks here in Oahu.

But before I start I'm going to step back and add in something that I forgot to mention in our caving blog. We started out practicing jumping backwards into our inner tubes. That is exactly what we did, underground, in the dark, backwards, twice and from an unknown, to us, height above the water! There was more than one scream heard down there and not all of them were from the ladies!

That was the ultimate test; trusting your guide when he says "trust me, you will be fine but you go first...just in case..." Well, we all did it and we survived and had a blast doing it. For some it was way out of their comfort zone, overcoming their fears and I did hear people saying that they just did something that they thought they would never do.

Today's blog will finish up our time in New Zealand. On our way back to Auckland we stopped at Hobbiton and toured the movie set.

Our guide for the tour was Taylah, a young girl who was born and raised in the area so she knew the whole story quite well. Our starting point was at a staging area called the Shire's Rest. Here was the large parking area that used to be the sheep shearing station of the Alexander farm that the movie set was on. There were both souvenir shop and restaurants located here plus this was where we boarded our tour bus over to the movie set.

Taylah gave us a bit of history on the way to the set. In 1989 when director Peter Jackson was bringing author J. R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings to life, he started looking for locations for Hobbiton that matched what was described by J. R. in his book. He wanted gently rolling grass covered hills, a large tree with a pond nearby with a large mountain range in the distance.

Peter had already 11 sites around the world that he was considering but the NZ location was better suited, even then he took 4 weeks to decide. Apparently Mr. Jackson was a perfectionist and it had to be perfect.This attention to detail was reflected in his movies as we will explain later.

Originally, all the sets were just made from Styrofoam as the set was taken down once filming of the Lord of the Rings was done. Then once Peter decided to take the author's other book "The Hobbit" and turn it into another trilogy the set was redone using more permanent materials so it could be then used as a tourist attraction.

We asked Taylah if there were any more plans for other Hobbit movies and she said no but there was talk of a possible Hobbit series in the future. She did say that the site is doing so well financially as a tourist site right now that the locals were happy as is for the present.

As for the Alexander family, imagine Publisher's Clearing House from Reader's Digest showing up at your doorstep with a 5 million dollar check.  The location scout was flying over their farm and liked what he saw below. He later showed up at their door, introduced himself and then asked that question that changed their lives forever "can we use your farm for a movie location?" According to Taylah the Alexander family still live in the area and one son, Craig, still lives in the same house as before and still runs the sheep and cattle side with brother Russell managing the Hobbiton business side and father, Mr. Alexander, now retired.

The site continues to be a top tourist draw with people coming from all over the world to visit it. Our tour started at 1230 and we loaded up on the bus and headed down to the site. Our driver tried to entertain us with some pretty lame jokes. When we would groan he would laugh and say " I'm hot today! Don't put me out! Actually he was quite entertaining but soon we were there.

So now enjoy with us as we walk through Hobbiton.

This is the first Hobbit Hole that you see as you walk into Hobbiton. As we encountered more of these doorways, Taylah asked why the the doorways were built to different scales? It was all due to the different perspectives. 

When we asked our guide if the garden produce was real she said about 95% of what we will see is real, the rest being fake. Her challenge to us was determining which was which. Those pumpkins are real that you see.

Looks like Hobbits like eating eels.

Her is the duck pond that Peter wanted; the ducks were real!

More garden

There are 2 trees on the far hill, which one was fake and the other real? asked Taylah

Little jars of honey for sale

This shot gives you the idea of just how big the site is; 12 acres

Here is a better shot of the 2 trees; one fake, the other real. Any guesses? Most of us picked the right one from this distance

Some Hobbit clothes out to dry, all to scale

I started getting hungry at this point

Mr. Scarecrow was real

Real or fake?

This is what the movie version of the village paths were like. They added the wider trails later for the tourists

The big Village Party tree is to the left and this tree was one of reasons the site was chosen. In the far distance is the Green Dragon Inn, our eventual destination

And here is the fake tree, right above Bilbo's house. There are over 200,000 fake leaves on that tree, each one hand painted and attached by hand. The day before shooting, Peter did not like the color so each leaf, all 200,000 it them, were repainted. Again, his attention to detail

Approaching Bilbo's house, right under the fake tree. His house is the highest house in the Shire; meaning he is at the top of the social scene in Hobbiton.

 Bilbo's house is the only Hobbit Hole that is not just a facade. It does extend back about 15 ft or so to show some of the interior woodwork. All the rest of the Holes are just facades built onto the hillside. Taylah said she has people all the time thinking that there were actual interiors behind each door. Some tourists have actually started crying when their "bubbles burst". All interior shots were done on sets built at the sound studios in Wellington.

Sorry to disappoint anyone!

And here is the fake tree

The front entrance to Bilbo's place. One of 2 Holes I recognized from the movie

A team of gardeners keep the flowers and rotate what is planted and will flower according to the seasons.  Lots of Canadian summer plants blooming in these shots.

This is the backside of Bilbo's house at the top of the hill

Fake or real fruit? 

Bob is obviously not a Hobbit.

No mail for either Bob or Naomi

This is the Hobbiton parade ground. Here is where they celebrated Bilbo's brithday. They used a styrafoam cake as a prop and apparently it caught on fire while filming Bilbo's acceptance speech and Peter kept filming.  It was kept in the film because everyone's lines were done so well...shows as a puff of smoke in one corner of the screen.

Everything scaled to Hobbit size

Here is the second door I recognized. This is Sam's place; at the end of the movie Sam comes walking up the pathway to be greetedby his family and they all are seen entering the doorway as the scene ends

Hobbit playground and parade area

Parade ground tree, a real one and one of the reasons why the site was chosen. They actually reproduced the first 12 ft to use in the studio

There across the pond is the Green Dragon Inn, our rest stop

Everything to Hobbit scale, even this gate....we look like giants!

This barrel is one of the most photographed landmarks on the site....not sure why

The village watermill coming up

The village notice board and current events calender

Again, all to Hobbit scale

I have these next 2 shots out of sequence but I gave up trying to realign them but this is the interior of the Green Dragon Inn. The inn is at full size scale and is a functioning bar and restaurant.

Exterior of the inn. Naomi is hoisting a cup of cider that each tourist is entitled to. They also have a few types of ale available that are only brewed on site and no where else.

Yes, it is a real fireplace with real fire (fake logs and propane fired)

Village Blacksmiths shop, all to scale

Real anvil; Hobbit scale

Another ideal fishing spot

Lakeside condos?

More out of sequence shots of the inn (Naomi took them when I went to the WC)

Of course I had to check if they were real!

Another last shot of the village tree

A last goodbye to Mr. Scarecrow and off we went back to the parking lot

This now concludes our stay in New Zealand, a land of many contrasts. After Hobbiton we made our way back to the Auckland Airport and turned in our rental. It was a huge relief to return it with no dings or scratches which is quite remarkable given the narrow and windy roads that we drove on.

Just as we pulled up to the agency a Monsoon downpour started. Next we had a ride to our hotel that was leaving in a few minutes. That meant we had no time to use up the extra groceries that we had with us.

We did give a lot of food and pop to a young American couple who were touring NZ that we met at Hobbiton, which they appreciated but we still had more to use up.

Our flight to Hawaii next day wasn't until 1155pm that night so we spent the afternoon and evening at the airport catching up on our blogging, and, anticipating our next stay in Hawaii!

Bye for now and Aloha soon!

Written by Bob and edited by Naomi