The Land of Hobbits

Last month I spent a week in New Zealand. I had visited New Zealand before, but that was way back in 2004. I spent a few days in both Auckland and Wellington.

I did a day trip from Auckland to see Hobbiton, the film set from The Hobbit movies (and previously The Lord of the Rings).

It’s a wondrous place to visit and full of gorgeous scenery.

The guide explained that the location scout had been looking for a place with hills and a lake that wasn’t viewable from a public road and discovered a farm near Matamata. The location scout knocked on the door of the house, but no one answered. The scout could hear people inside but no one would answer. It turned out the rugby was on and the owners weren’t moving. Eventually the game reached half time and they went out to see what the location scout wanted.

You get to spend about an hour being taken around the set and then end up in The Green Dragon Inn where you get a tasty beverage.

There’s a great series of review videos looking at what went wrong with The Hobbit movies compared to The Lord of the Rings.

After that, I took the train from Auckland to Wellington. It’s a 10-hour trip through some beautiful scenery and the train has an open air viewing carriage.

In Wellington I did a Lord of the Rings day tour which went to some of the locations used in the films as well as going on a tour of Weta Workshop, the company which did the special effects for the movies and made all of the armor and weapons.

The New Zealand Festival was on in Wellington when I was there and they had some science fiction writers giving talks which I went along to, as well as visiting Te Papa, the national museum which had a special display on Gallipoli.