I'd Show You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You

We left Auckland early on Monday morning, and started heading south. We stopped in Paeroa, home of the famous New Zealand drink L & P (short for lemon and paeroa). Since we were specifically in the town where it was made, I figured I had to try some. It was good, but really just tasted like lemon flavoured pop, and I don't really care for pop. I'm still up for trying some with alcohol though.

Our second stop was for lunch at Shire's Rest near Matamata, which is a farm that is home to the Lord of the Rings set for Hobbiton. After the scenes in the Shire were filmed for Lord of the Rings, the crew came to strip the set and revert it back to its original hilly farmland. However, due to bad weather, they could not remove all of the hobbit holes for fear of collapsing the hills. In the meantime, the owner of the sheep farm realized this could be a place for tourists and Lord of the Rings fans to come and see the set, so the rest of the area was preserved. I was told to not get my hopes up about it because while the rolling grassy hills are cool, the hobbit holes have been reduced to simple white walls set in the hills. However, since Peter Jackson is currently running around New Zealand filming scenes for the Hobbit, the area has been recreated as it was for Lord of the Rings. Filming actually wrapped up just a week before we got there, and everything was still in perfect condition. It turns out that they are going to keep up the Hobbit holes this time around with 4 permanent gardeners to maintain the area. This isn't surprising, since it lets silly LotR fans and tourists like me come and experience the Shire. It still felt a little more special to know that we had just missed the film crew, and made me that much more excited to see the films.

While we waited for our tour to start, we grabbed some lunch. One item on the menu was called "Second Breakfast," which is an awesome reference to the movies. I settled for a burger, and got a Lord of the Rings beer called “SobeRing Thought”. It was brewed especially for the crew during filming- the beer is only 1% so it allows them to drink on the job without having to worry about becoming drunk. The beer wasn't fantastic, but the novelty of drinking Lord of the Rings beer was worth it.

Since the area was originally a sheep farm and still functions as one, they had sheep shearing demonstrations. That was quite interesting. The sheep stayed completely docile in between the shearer's legs while he took an electric razor to the excess of wool on her body. When he was finished, he encouraged us to feel the wool and sheep's body- you could instantly feel the lanolin that her skin was giving off when he was done.

But the real attraction was, of course, going into Hobbiton. When Peter Jackson's scouts found the area, they couldn't get over how perfectly it corresponded to the descriptions in Tolkien books--from the lake to the party tree, it was almost exactly as the novels described. Originally, there were 37 Hobbit holes in the area including the Green Dragon Inn. For The Hobbit movie, a few more were built. Bag End and Rosie and Sam's house were exactly like they were in the films. The tour guide had a plethora of cool facts and trivia, like how even though Hobbiton is set on a functioning sheep farm, those sheep weren't the 'right' ones, so they had to ship in other breeds. She also said that around 35 percent of all people who come to Hobbiton have never actually seen the Lord of the Rings movies. The poor suckers were dragged in by their Hobbit Loving partners. Regardless, the area is absolutely gorgeous.

One of the funniest stories was the oak tree that is supposed to hang over Bag End. The tree was one of the few things that wasn't naturally growing in the area. For the Lord of the Rings films, they used 3D imaging to scan an oak tree at another location nearby, and then transported it by cutting it up and reassembling it like a puzzle. They imported the leaves from Taiwan. The issue with this was that eventually, the tree started to rot which made a safety hazard and they had to remove it. For the Hobbit movies, they designed a synthetic oak tree made entirely of plastic- bark and all. This works perfectly of course, until they need to film a fall or winter scene and the 'oak tree' is still as green and lush as ever.

At one point our tour guide had a trivia question that asked, “What was written on the door of Bilbo Baggins' house on the weeks leading up to his party?” Our group was silent, so I brought out my inner nerd and answered “No admittance- except on party business” and won a fake leaf from the fake oak tree. I felt special.

I would show you actual pictures, but in order to go in to Hobbiton, we had to sign crazy confidentiality agreements stating that we would not post pictures anywhere online- whether that be facebook, twitter, or even email. I'm not even allowed to show you my pictures in person until the movie is released. You'll just have to come see it yourself.