Hobbiton!

So today, I group of students from Thames High School, and two other schools in the Coromandel Peninsula. went on a field trip to Hobbiton in Matamata, New Zealand. These students were in the middle of a tourism unit, so they went on this trip as part of their class. Because the teachers at Thames High School are so incredible, they allowed me and Shaina to tag along! We took a bus to Matamata, got to stop at a little cafe for morning tea, and then headed to the Hobbiton Experience!

Disclaimer: All of the "facts" I'll be writing about are coming pure from memory of what I heard today. I may have misinterpreted something our tour guide said or may have misheard something she said, so if you really want to make sure what I say is true, I'm sure you could find the information online! Also, if you want to some day come here and don't want to ruin the experience for yourself, don't read any further! I don't want to give everything away.

This is at the entrance to Hobbiton, that little birds name is Skully who is Shaina's schools mascot. She is supposed to take pictures of him doing things kind of like a Flat Stanley.

Just some background information on this location: This was the actual set that they used to film Hobbiton in all of the films it's in! I've never been on a movie set before, so it was pretty awesome. The set is on a huge farm that is like 2000 something acres. There were a total of 158 I think locations used for the Lord of the Rings Films (in which Hobbiton is basically in the beginning of the first film and end of the third film) and only 28 or something for The Hobbit Trilogy. Peter Jackson, the director of the films, was flying around in a plane looking for a tree to use in the film for the "Party Tree" for Bilbo's big birthday party at the beginning of the film. When Peter Jackson flew over this area, he saw the huge tree, and there was a large lake next to it which was perfect. He ended up knocking on the owners door and asked if he could look at his farm but couldn't tell him why. The owner said sure as long as he shut the gate behind him. Peter Jackson already had 12 other locations booked to use as The Shire/ Hobbiton, but he liked the landscape of this area so much that he canceled all other locations. The army was sent out to this farm when the location was chose to create a road to Hobbiton and to fill in a swamp to create a large grassy area in Hobbiton (the army was told it was a training exercise since they didn't want anybody to know a film was going to be shot there).

Hobbiton! You can just barely see Bilbo and Frodo's house up at the top there. NZ is pretty dry right now, so it's not as green as it normally is, however they have a nice irrigation system in Hobbiton so it is always green!

Originally, they had a contract to only use this set for the first film for a year I believe, so all of the hobbit holes were made using removable materials. Nothing was permanent that they used on the set because it all had to be taken down after they were done filming. I can't exactly remember why, maybe because the movies became really popular and it was a neat attraction, but they eventually agreed to make Hobbiton permanent! Therefore, all of the hobbit holes are made out of permanent materials so that they can last a long time. There are a total of 44 hobbit holes in Hobbiton.

Here is the first hobbit hole we saw! (That's Shaina by the way which I'm sure every one could have figured out). 

Some of the hobbit holes are made smaller than others so that they could film the scenes and make the hobbits look their appropriate size.

If you remember in the movies when Gandalf is riding into town and Frodo runs up to him to say he is late, this is where they are riding. I'm such a tourist I know, but I think it's cool! Apparently the place where Frodo is reading right before he runs towards Gandalf was filmed in a different part of NZ. They had Frodo sit three meters (I think) behind Gandalf when filming to make Frodo seem smaller, and then they just combined the frames.

Another hobbit hole. If you can tell, this door is smaller than the door in the previous picture, so this was a smaller hobbit hole. They used these ones when filming children so that the child hobbits looked the right size!

Be right back, going into a hobbit hole...but not really. When this door is open, all that's inside is a lot of dust and just empty space. The only hobbit hole that actually had some furnishing in it is the entry of Bag End. All filming inside the hobbit holes was done on set in Wellington, NZ.

Inside another hobbit hole. These are some of the students from our school that were with us.

That is the famous party tree! Like I said earlier, this was what Peter Jackson liked so much about this location. You can see how brown the rest of NZ looks at the moment compared to Hobbiton.

Above is the famous Bag End where Bilbo and Frodo live! Like I said, there is a little bit of furnishing inside for looks and for some of the filming. They used this space to film the Party Tree during the party because it is across from this hobbit hole. The inside is bigger than the others so that they could fit the film crew inside to film, but the rest is empty like the other holes. Although it's not pictured, there is a tree on top of Bag End. It is one of the only artificial trees, and each leaf was HAND PAINTED and SEWN ON or something to prevent them from blowing away. There are over 200,000 leaves. In the picture below, you can see the tree at the top right-ish (It's the tree by itself). The reason it is artificial is because it was used to film the Hobbit, and Bilbo is supposed to be 60 years younger, so they wanted the tree to be younger as well.

Most of these fruits and vegetables are real, and they are used for food in the pub in Hobbiton.

Also, the rest of the farm (the part that isn't Hobbiton) is still a fully functioning farm. They had to do many things to be able to film here to make it look like it wasn't in the twentieth century (since it was filmed in 1999). For example, they used to have to move the sheep each morning so that they weren't in the background. Now, they have electric fences all around Hobbiton to keep the sheep out.

This is a bridge that brings us from Hobbiton to The Green Dragon. In the background is the party tree and the Buckland building.

The final stop is the Green Dragon! It is a fully functioning pub, and they provide each guest with a free ginger beer (if you're under 18, the legal drinking age) or cider (which is the alcoholic version). 

One thing that I don't have a picture of in this blog is the clothes, but they did have clothes hanging on clothes lines throughout Hobbiton. The clothes were the actual clothes worn by the hobbits, and they have been treated so that they can survive any weather condition for many years!

This was definitely a great way to spend a day. It was something that was definitely on my list of things to do, so I am so fortunate I got to go with the school. This trip made me want to either work at a place like this or do something in film because our tour guide talked about all the work that went into just making Hobbiton, and it sounded so fun! I can't wait for the many adventures here to come!