Adventures in Welly: The Shire

After zorbing (previous post), next on our road trip adventure was a trip an hour outside of Rotorua to Matamata (aka the SHIRE)!!

The shire was all filmed on a farm. Peter Jackson (director) spotted it when looking for sites via helicopter. He chose it because it was secluded (Matamata is the in the middle of nowhere) and there are beautiful mountains in the distance.

All of the hobbit holes you see are the same ones that are in The Hobbit. After Lord of the Rings was filmed, the set was taken down. It was only built again for The Hobbit.

There is actually nothing inside the hobbit holes. Most of them aren't even real doors. There are 2 hobbit holes with doors that function and this is one of them. Although nothing is inside, I did steal a rock for my brother so he can say he has a rock from a hobbit hole in The Shire!

This is looking up at some hobbit holes. You might recognize this from the Lord of the Rings movie! Gandalf rides past this pond and down the narrow path you see. Apparently, the actor hates horses and is scared of heights. And being pulled in a carriage up these hills by some horses was apparently NOT fun for him.

This is the bench where Bilbo and Gandalf smoke in the Fellowship of the Ring. It's also where Biblo is sitting when Gandalf comes to visit him in The Hobbit.

And this is Bilbo and Frodo's house! This is the only other hobbit hole that opens. But it only opens about 4 feet deep. This is so when they filmed, Frodo or Bilbo could open the door when someone knocked and it would look like it leads into their home. The inside of the home was filmed in the studio, however.

The outside of Biblo/Frodo's house

Random hobbit house.

Where Bilbo's party was.

Looking up toward Bilbo/Frodo's house. The tree at the top is fake. J.R.R Tolkien drew a picture of Bilbo's house with a tree on top, so Peter Jackson made sure one was there. Lucky for Ray, one of the fake leaves blew off and I stole it for him as well!