When Peter Jackson's (the director of the Lord of the Rings) location scouts were searching for the perfect filming location for The Shire, there were some pretty specific parameters in order to bring this other-worldly land from JRR Tolkien's trilogy to life. As they flew above the rolling farmlands across New Zealand's North island, there was certainly a lot of potential.
But when they came upon the 1,250 acre Alexander sheep farm, with it's towering pine beside a small lake and rising hills surrounding it, the scout knew instantly that they had found their place.
The story goes, that the scout went up to the Alexander residence and knocked on the door. At first, Mr Alexander ignored the knocking, as he was watching a crucial All Blacks rugby match. He eventually came to the door (only because it was halftime) and said that they'd have to come back later.
And as you probably can guess, they absolutely did come back. Jackson had his tea and biscuits with Mr Alexander, and brought him up to speed with "the Lord of the...what?". And so, eventually over the span of about 6 months a deal to set up a temporary film location for The Shire was enacted.
As we drove through the remote farmlands and came upon the buzzing hub for tourists loading into green busses to take them into the Alexander farm, I got a wave of such excitement! The kids and I were the last to load on the Big Green Bus, and as we drove into the farm, a video played with Peter Jackson welcoming us and giving us the backstory (as noted above). I was astounded how massive this farm was, and to learn that the New Zealand Army had initially been involved when site construction began in March 1999, including building the 1.5km road that we were taking into the farm. Hobbiton only occupied 12 acres of this 1,250 acre farm, and it couldn't help but be noted that the Alexander family had struck a pretty good deal with the tourist industry.
And recall how earlier I mentioned that they had set up a temporary deal for the film location of Hobbition. So everything for filming Hobbiton for The Lord of the Rings, had been made with...temporary materials! Which means, after the filming was completed, they had TORN DOWN EVERYTHING. Which also means, when they decided to move forward with filming the Hobbit series, they then realized that they would need to reconstruct Hobbiton all over again. So this time, they made a deal to construct it with permanent materials, and leave it up and make it available for tourism.
At last we arrived, gathered under the classic Hobbiton sign, and received instruction from our guide.
The tour began by entering through the stone passage where Bilbo exclaims in The Hobbit “I’m going on an adventure!” We were encouraged to run through and re-enact the scene. (See the movie clip here of this same spot and a great view of Hobbiton from above).
It then opened up into the rolling land speckled with hobbit holes nestled in between flourishing gardens.
Each hobbit hole had its own theme if you looked closely, you could find what the occupants livelihood might be. From gardeners, to beekeepers, to dairy farmers, to cheese makers, to bread bakers, to meat smokers, to blacksmiths, and fishermen.
The kids had such fun discovering the ornate amount of detail put into each one.
The bread and cakes looked unbelievably real. And in inspecting closer, we learned they were made of some form of painted concrete!
Another fun thing to experience in person, was how each of the Hobbit houses were constructed at different sizes depending on if they needed to film a shot of Hobbits or of wizards! So various sized doors came around every corner. And one could truly start to feel they were entering into the world of The Shire.
Though behind these doors, was just a narrow space and then the hill in which it was built, it was still pretty dreamy to open the doors and step inside.
It was so fun to recognize (and receive confirmation from our guide) of the familiar spots in the film. Here's where the kids run out into the road after Gandalf shouting "fireworks Gandalf, fireworks!!" (Watch that scene here)
Then there was the classic Bagshot Row, the home of Sam & Rosie. Which they are officially working on digging out to create a real hobbit house that people will be able to go in and rent overnight!
The deeper we got into our tour, the deeper our understanding at the insane level of detail that Peter Jackson required in perfecting his film sight. Here are some wild stories that shed some light on just a few examples of that:
There were several apple trees along the way. However, the "problem" was that in the book, it was plum trees that the children were picking from. So naturally, every apple, and EVERY LEAF had to be plucked off, and Jackson had them wire on fake plum leaves and fruits for that passing scene. I believe they couldn't have just used real plum trees, because the height wouldn't have made sense for hobbit sized children!
They created a frog pond, which included bringing frogs in, to make it just that much more real. To only discover, that the frogs they had populated their pond with, were too loud and getting picked up in the mics during filming. Soo, they had to go and catch every last frog and take them outta there!
During the filming, it was some people's jobs to keep the keep the beeswax lit in the fake chimneys, so that if Jackson wanted to pan the camera that direction there would be smoke coming out at all times. Sounded like quite a feat to keep those all lit! Now they use Manuka chips for smoke, which last much longer! And it certainly does create an ambiance of reality there for sure.
And for the clothes lines, it was literally someone's job to take clothes on and off the line each day & night, so that they could tread a natural looking path in the grass between the hobbit home and clothes line. Of course, you couldn't just have ordinary grass growing for the film. ;)
Indeed, about 2 years went into building for just 3 weeks of filming. These things we don't always apprecaite in the realm of film - for all the ornate detail, and effort put into this place, of all 6 movies (Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit series combined) only about SEVEN MINUTES per movie (which each near what, close to 3 hours?) appear from the Hobbiton set! Wild stuff.
As we came upon Bag End, the home of Bilbo and Frodo, I felt my stomach flutter with excitement. It was exactly like the film, and an imagination from the book realized. Unfortunately, they don't let people go up to the door, but we admired it from the "no admittance" side of the fence.
While we were waiting to take our close up look at Bag End, our guide had us look around Hobbiton and try to guess which tree was the fake one. It was a mixed review.
Turns out, it was the tree atop Bag End! The story is that, this once-living tree, was discovered and decided perfect for the tree to top this iconic place, so they cut the tree into pieces, and reconstructed it here on the set, and had steel beams holding the pieces of this chopped tree together. Naturally, years later, when it came time to film the Hobbit (and reconstruct Hobbiton altogether) this sorry tree was no longer living. And even if it had been salvagable, it needed to look 70 years younger anyway (since The Hobbit precedes the Lord of the Rings!)
So a new tree was constructed in it's place, made of fiberglass! The leaves, made of silk, were imported from Taiwan. But guess what? When it came time for Jackson to film the Hobbit, he decided the "leaves" weren't the right shade of green. And had EVERY SINGLE LEAF individually spray painted. Whewh, imagine getting assigned that job!
This was the end of the tour of the hobbit homes, and we ran down a winding path towards the party field and tavern.
Initially "the party field" was an 18ft deep swamp! So they had the swamp filled with dirt that was excavated from building Bag End. We had fun running around with the ribbons imagining the field filled with hobbits during Bilbo's 111th birthday party.
Just on the other end of the iconic stone bridge, sits the Millhouse with the waterwheel. This is one of only a few structures in Hobbiton (along one of the hobbit holes and The Green Dragon Inn) with a thatched roof. Initially the roofs, like everything else, had been made with temporary grasses. So for this construction, they had the roofs thatched by a professional roof thatcher who came in all the way from England!
After we crossed the bridge, we made a quick pass through a blacksmith shop, then our tour ended with complimentary drinks at The Green Dragon Inn. We enjoyed the ginger beer and an Amber ale (for myself) fireside, dressing in some Hobbit clothes. The kids admired at the details here, even in the bathrooms (which were definitely not shown in the films!) in how genuine they felt with all the wood embellishments, from the wood surrounding the hand dryers, and the pull-chain flush toilets.
We ran to catch our group before they loaded on the busses, and as we started to leave Hobbiton behind, suddenly my stomach dropped! The irreplaceable "John Yarrow" teddy bear (from Corey's childhood!) had been left behind! I sprinted back, and fortunately found him forgotten on the chair beside the Hobbit dress up clothes! Whewh, close call!
And that concluded our tour!
We had a picnic lunch back at the Shire's rest Cafe, and relished in the last waves of delight and amazement of all we'd seen.
We departed back northward, winding our way back through the speckled sheep fields, and made our way back to the city of Cambridge where we had dropped Corey off for the day. As he isn't much of a LOTR fan, he decide to spend his day on a bike tour and departing from the Velodrome arena there.
Once we circled back with Corey, we enjoyed watching the velodrome bikers train on the unbelievably steep track. Turns out, their coach would help get them started and up to speed with a small motorbike, on which he would drive one-handed while pushing the other guy's bike with his other hand, and lap several times around the track before peeling off. It was wild, and looked super sketchy!
After that, the kids had some of their own bike time winding around on the pump tracks outside before we headed out to our next Holiday Park for the night.
After feasting on some Indian food, we spent some time stargazing, and then tucked into our bunkbeds and fell fast asleep.
We were nearing the end of our journey, only one more stop on this New Zealand tour was ahead for us.
-M
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