Anyone who have read The Hobbit would have imagined that hole in the ground where a hobbit lived. In fact the hobbit JRR Tolkien is particularly describing is Bilbo Baggins and his house at Bag End at the Shire in Hobbiton. This is because Bilbo’s house is the prettiest if not the richest in the neighborhood. It overlooks the town and its townsfolk. In Lord of the Rings, the house now belongs to Bilbo’s nephew, Frodo. And it is from this doorstep at Bag End, Frodo’s journey to Mount Doom can be traced back.
Meanwhile, my journey to Hobbiton officially started when I arrived in Auckland, New Zealand. Apparently, my friends and I arrived on an Easter Monday, which was a holiday. It was a bit strange for us because we only celebrate Easter Sunday. We were quite perplexed seeing a few people loitering about Aotea Square. It felt like a scene in Walking Dead, only cleaner and no zombies (just us tourists).
The next day we left early from the InterCity Sky City Bus Terminal at Hobson Street to continue our journey to Hobbiton. We booked our tour through Great Sights, as they have a combo tour taking us not just to Hobbiton, but also to Waitomo Caves, and it’s also a trip from Auckland going to Rotorua, where we plan to end our day.
Hobbiton is located in a farm at Mata Mata. Peter Jackson’s location scout apparently chose this location for the Hobbiton because of its idyllic and pastoral setting. It’s also hilly like most of New Zealand, and an ideal spot for building hobbit holes. The journey going to Mata Mata was quite surreal. The season was changing from summer to autumn, so we were mostly travelling on foggy roads. It’s like breezing through the clouds with sheep (wool sheared off sadly) and black and white cows that happen to travel with you by the waysides.
When we got to Mata Mata, our bus transported us first to The Shire’s Rest, which is actually where a restaurant and the souvenir shop is located. I had approximately less than an hour to hoard stuff like a dwarf. From there, it’s a 5-minute bus trip up and down the hills of the Alexander Farm (full of sheep and deer) to the spot where you actually walk through a gate into Hobbiton.
Our guide took our group through the gates, and pointed out hobbit holes and supposedly owners of the holes. I felt excited and giddy, the place looks exactly how it looked in the movies. There weren’t just hobbit holes with their colorful doors, there were places like a garden (apparently Old Gaffer’s or Sam’s garden), a carpenter’s shop, a baker’s house, and a tent with a collection of pumpkins. These places were filled with props that looked real. There was even laundry with hobbit clothes hanging to dry. The pond was there too and I could even point and stand where Gandalf’s cart came in with the fireworks and where Bilbo ran off to go on his journey. The guide’s commentaries were also interesting and funny, filled with stories on how the movie was filmed, the problems they encountered, and then tourists running off with some of the props for selfies and then finding these props on several places they did not expect. The tour ends (almost) at Bilbo’s hobbit hole overlooking the whole of Hobbiton. And from this high part of the hill, this is the view you will get to see:
From Bilbo’s home, you go down to the party field and to several more hobbit holes until eventually you end up at the Green Dragon Inn, where Merry and Pippin danced on the tables with their ales. But of course, you pass by the water mill and the bridge to get to the inn.
The Water Mill
When you get inside The Green Dragon Inn, you will be offered a cool drink of your choice (beer, cider, ginger beer) and you can rest your feet on one of the tables near the fireplace or near the bar while lunch is being prepared at a nearby tent (lunch is included in the tour package which is very good, by the way).
After lunch, we took our last-minute photos before we finally bid our goodbye to Hobbiton and went off to Waitomo Caves.
How would I rate the experience? Well, for a LOTR nut like me it’s like opening that wardrobe and ending up in Narnia (in this case, Middle Earth). I felt like a kid, it’s like walking into something magical. I felt the tour was a bit short, when in fact it’s not because I wanted more time to take pictures and scrutinize every detail. The weather was particularly nice, it was cool but sunny so it made walking around pleasurable. The tour guides are great, the food and the drink are great, and the whole set is just amazing. Adults and kids were having a great time. Overall, it was really a fun day walking in hobbit town.
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