Day 24: Hobbiton
My journey to Middle Earth!! An hour away from Rotorua is a town called Matamata, although most people from anywhere outside of New Zealand now think of it as “Hobbiton.” On October 18th, 1998 the studio scouting representatives for Peter Jackson approached a local farmer about his 1250 acre family owned and operated farm. Apparently Peter flew over in a helicopter and thought this area looked exactly how The Shire was described by JRR Tolkien. The rest is, quite literally, history.
For The Lord of the Rings trilogy they agreed to build the Hobbit’s Shire and, when done, return it back to farmland. No one had any idea this farmland would become a destination for fans of Middle Earth. In 2009, when they returned to film the Hobbit Trilogy they made a different agreement. They went into partnership, Peter Jackson and the Alexander family, and rebuilt The Shire for the movie AND for posterity. They built 44 permanent structures that are the Hobbit Holes, and they built them to last. The Shire is 12.5 acres of the 1,250 acre farm and everything in it feels so real. Every detail is flawless, the flowers and vegetable gardens, the fruit trees and baskets of fruit underneath, the smoke from the chimneys, even the cloths on the lines are hand sewn. The famous Green Dragon Inn is also real now serving food, local cider, ginger beer, and 2 different beers all from a local producer. The Shire is alive and well and sits in the middle of a fully working sheep and cow farm. It was pure magic!! I love love the books and the movies. I felt excited, like a little kid, and I really just want to live there!
