Along with its sweeping cultural boom, the city is on the rise to becoming a potentially fierce Asian competitor among fashion capitals throughout the world.
Among the many shooting locations of Peter Jackson’s movie adaptations of J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings novels, Hobbiton might be the most iconic with its maintained sets and props. Located in Matamata, New Zealand, it’s well-hidden from prying eyes. Hills covered by grass and grazing sheep are all I can see when I arrive at The Shires Rest, a café and function center which also serves as the nearest pick-up point for the tour. A mini bus soon arrives to take us to the movie set, passing winding roads and through several gates.
As the first hobbit hole comes into view, it feels like stepping into a fantasy world. Rustic wooden fences surround the small, lush courtyard that leads to the round yellow door nestled in the hill. A chair with a worn cushion shows that the resident hobbit must’ve enjoyed sitting on it, smoking his pipe while waving to passing neighbors.
These details are consistently placed throughout the area, telling a story about the villagers, from a pretty straw hat that hangs on the door to working tools in sizes that suit the little hobbits. You can even tell the occupation of a hobbit from their mailbox. For example, flowery patterns imply a gardener while a painting of trees might represent a lumberjack. One person in the gardening staff is responsible for ensuring these props are maintained. She also sews cushions and puts hobbit clothes on the washing line, thinking like a hobbit herself to help make the set look like a realistic, inhabited village.
Walking further into the village, there’s a vast, open area in the middle with a working vegetable garden, complete with a scarecrow. A view of the surrounding area shows the rest of the hobbit holes at different levels of the hill. There are 44 hobbit holes in total with various designs, sizes and scales to perpetuate the height differences between hobbits and other races during the movie shooting. The smallest one is the 60 percent scale of Bag End, the home of Bilbo and Frodo Baggins, but the real-life scale is also available at the very top of the hill, complete with the bench where Bilbo smoked his pipe in the movie when Gandalf came to find him and the tree perched on top of the hole. Samwise Gamgee’s hole is located not far from it, fairly large in size in keeping with the storyline where he actually has a huge family.
It’s too bad that none of the hobbit holes are actually habitable. You can walk into the courtyards, sit on the chairs, and open the doors of the holes, but there’s nothing inside as the interior shots from the movie were made in the studio. Bag End has parts of the interior visible from the door and through the windows, yet you can’t even step inside the fence as, understandably, this particular hole is of high importance.
Past the famous party tree, the lake, the double-arched stone bridge and the mill, the tour finishes up in the latest addition to the movie set used to film scenes in The Hobbit, the Green Dragon Inn. Here you can truly experience the hobbit-themed interior with its round archway, beer barrels and mock posters to advertise smoke ring contests, among others. The inn is also a pub and restaurant serving snacks and à la carte or buffet lunch with special dietary options available upon notice.
In J. R. R. Tolkien’s fictional Middle-earth, Hobbiton is a small part of the Shire, an area settled exclusively by hobbits. In the real world, the Hobbiton movie set takes up just around one percent of the Alexander family’s land. Russell Alexander, the current owner of Hobbiton Movie Set Tours, is an enthusiastic, visionary man with a lot of plans. He tells the story of a Saturday afternoon in 1998 when Russell’s father, Ian, first got the knock on the door. A man said he was representing filmmakers and asked if they could look around and see if it was suitable for a movie shooting, to which Ian agreed as long as they shut the gates behind them so they don’t mix the sheep up. The representatives returned to meet the family and confirm their intentions, but not until the family had signed all the confidentiality agreements was the movie’s title revealed: The Lord of the Rings. Ian repeated blankly, “Lord of the what!?” He had never heard of J.R.R. Tolkien’s world then but he certainly knows a lot about it now.
There were months of discussions of how it would all work, building a movie set and filming while continuing to run the farming operation. In the original location agreement, the land was to be returned to its original form after filming. But in the end, the weather was so bad they had to abandon it and asked for a six month grace period to come back. During this time, Ian’s son and the current owner of Hobbiton Movie Set Tours, Russell Alexander, came up with the idea of guided tours and made negotiations with the film company. Back then, the tours covered 17 hobbit holes with white facades, but no improvements were allowed, including adding gardens or props.
The filming of The Hobbit in 2009 brought forth many improvements. The set was rebuilt with permanent materials as a result of yet another set of negotiations and the joint venture between the Alexander family and Wingnut Films, Peter Jackson’s film company. Hobbiton Movie Set Tours went from a destination for hardcore fans to a magical place that attracts a wider range of visitors.
You need to book a tour in advance and choose your pick-up point along with the designated time. l
Hobbiton Movie Set Tours
501 Buckland Rd, RD2, Matamata
New Zealand
www.hobbitontours.com
www.newzealand.com
