A Journey To Middle Earth (AKA New Zealand)

So my extensive travels have finally brought me to the Shire in Middle Earth. I am a HUGE Lord of the Rings geek. I can't remember at which point of my childhood that I read the books. The Hobbit was always my favorite. Then I watched all the movies. When I found out about Hobbiton, I knew I had to go. It's basically the film set for the movies. The original Shire was taken down after filming the LOTR trilogy. When they made the Hobbit trilogy, a smart guy was like 'let's keep the set and have fans visit.' It was genius. 

Hobbiton is located in Matamata, New Zealand. It's in the middle of the country, about 2.5 hours south of Auckland. The story goes that Peter Jackson and his producers were scouting for the film. They wanted a large green area with a lake. They saw the Alexander sheep farm from the air. The rest, as they say, is history. 

You can drive there yourself but we took a tour because we didn't want to drive 2.5 hours on the other side of the road. Highly highly recommend you buy tickets online before you go. I can't imagine how mad you would be if you drove 2.5 hours and couldn't get in. 

The tour starts at the Shire's Rest. It's where you buy tickets if you haven't already. There's bathrooms, a cafe, a gift shop. There's cool LOTR memorabilia scattered around. I had this yummy pistachio cake. Your ticket has a set time for the tour. You line up for the buses here. 

It's a guided tour (because I wouldn't trust people to roam around by themselves either). The tour guide was a lovely young lady who told us a lot of interesting behind the scenes info about the films. There's 44 hobbit holes. The details are beyond description. Just see for yourself. 

This is Bag End where Bilbo and Frodo lives. The tree on top is artificial. Every leaf was made by hand. It's incredible. It's also the only fake tree in the entire Shire. 

This is the clearing where Bilbo and Frodo's birthday party takes place. 

The newest addition is they created two identical hobbit holes that is life size so you can go inside. You are encouraged to sit on the furniture, lay on the bed, open all the drawers. My little hobbit heart almost exploded. 

This is the bridge that Bilbo runs across while shouting "I'm going on an adventure!" 

The tour ends at the Green Dragon Inn. So apparently they set fire to the first inn. It's in the movie where Frodo sees an apocalyptic world and the inn is burning down. They rebuilt it. Your tour includes a free ale or ginger beer. 

This is the rest of the Shire. 

I was so excited to go to Hobbiton and it exceeded my expectations. When I read the books, I knew immediately I was a hobbit. Going to the Shire was like going home. 💖