Calling Dublin home: Hobbiton

I knew that if I came as far as Australia, that I would want to see New Zealand as well, but when it came time to book the trip, I didn’t know WHERE in New Zealand to come. I told the travel agent to book my time here around seeing Hobbiton, so this is the whole reason we are in Auckland. I am so glad it didn’t disappoint!

We found out that Peter Jackson originally planned to shoot The Shire scenes in pieces, spread over different farms. However, when he found this farm with the big tree by the pond, they decided that the whole thing would be shot on just this farm.

That's the Green Dragon Inn on the other side of the lake.

The set for the Lord of the Rings was made of temporary materials, and was taken down after shooting. The Farm owner quickly realized that people wanted to see the set, and so when they came back to film The Hobbit movies, the farmer negotiated to have the set made out of permanent materials so he could make it into a tourist attraction. I was worried how it would look once I found out it was owned and run by a farmer, but this place could not have been better if Walt Disney himself had designed it.

This is what it looked like when the Lord of The rings was finished shooting. Not very exciting at all. That's Bag End at the top of the picture.

We learned lots of cool things about the set, like that the tree over Bag End in the Lord of the Rings films was found on a different site, cut down, and reassembled on site. Just like a cut Christmas tree, it died after a few weeks and was taken down after shooting. The tree there now, and used in The Hobbit, is artificial (one of the few artificial plants there). By the time shooting was set to begin, the colors had faded too much, and Peter Jackson made a crew spend 10 days spray painting each individual leaf a different shade of green!

Can you tell that the tree on the top left is fake?

Close up view of the fake leaves.

We also found out that the hobbit holes were made different sizes, so that some would make actors look larger, and others would make actors look smaller.

These made us look like giants:

Tiny firewood!

Don't miss the tiny axe in the stump behind me.

This made us look hobbit sized:

Each hobbit hole had a back story, and it showed in the details. You could guess the profession of many of the hole residents just by what was around the yard.

The Cheese-monger's house. Can you see something hanging int he window on the left?

An up close look shows lots of cheese in there.

An even closer look shows they even stocked the back shelves!

The spindle outside the carpenter's house actually worked, and there were saw marks in the saw horses.

Every window had something in it.

Can you guess what this hobbit's occupation was?

The fishmonger had (thankfully fake) fish hanging to dry, in the basket, and in the smoking room.

Some things we found here did not make it into the movie set because they didn’t fit in, other things were just disguised.

The ferns are quite common in this area, so some parts of the farm were just not suitable for filming.

The poor sheep that live here had to be moved if they were in the shot, because they looked too "modern" for The Shire. Apparently a completely different kind of sheep was imported that fit the story better.

These palm trees don't fit the look, but couldn't be removed, so were just disguised by having branches of other trees put in front of them. Also, I think this is the part of The Shire that was only in the extended scenes, and only for a second or two.

After geeking out on every single hobbit hole we saw, we headed to the Green Dragon Inn for some drinks. They had brews special made for the movie set: Sackville Cider, Frogmorton (non-alcoholic) Ginger Beer, and Girdley Fine Grain Amber Ale. We skipped the cider and enjoyed the other two very much.

Mom is ready for her brew.

The fire was welcomed after the cool day with off and on rain.

Even the bathroom at the Green Dragon Inn was hobbit-ish.

Then we moved into the party tent for a delicious buffet lunch. You know we can’t act like hobbits and NOT pig out. We found out you can rent this tent for special events, like weddings. Hubby, I want a do-over on our wedding now!