Home » New Zealand » Concerning Hobbits November 11, 2004

For our first full day in New Zealand, we got our rental car and drove south. Random showers hit here and there, but nothing to really interrupt our plans. We stopped in the mid-size town of Hamilton for lunch. This was also where we were staying for the night.<br/><br/>

Concerning Hobbits November 11, 2004

Ttrealtravels
2005-12-26 16:02:52

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For our first full day in New Zealand, we got our rental car and drove south. Random showers hit here and there, but nothing to really interrupt our plans. We stopped in the mid-size town of Hamilton for lunch. This was also where we were staying for the night.

Opposite the Waikato Art Museum, we found a fabulous café -- perhaps called the Rocket Cafe, although the sign was unclear. I ate a savory "scroll" which was a pastry shaped like a cinnamon role but filled with cheese and Indian spices. Thomas had a slice of pizza decked with chili beans and feta. Quite exotic and unique for what seemed like a random town in the middle of the North Island. Very tasty!

Well fortified, we headed off to the day's true destination -- Hobbiton, a.k.a., Matamata. This modest little town is home to the only remaining movie set from The Lord of the Rings as filmed by Peter Jackson. You can pay $50NZ for the privilege of touring the site. A bus and a pair of guides take groups out several times a day, and the guides explain in detail what was filmed where.

It's a little cheesy and over-priced. But it also felt very special for me to be in the Shire. See, when I was a little child, my mom used to tell me Tolkien's tales as stories. She didn't read from the books, and I was far too young to read them myself. Instead, she told the books like bedtime stories.

I loved her telling me about Bilbo and the magic ring and the riddle game he won the ring in. I'd beg Mom to tell me again how Bilbo's friends realized the ring was bad and how little Frodo had to destroy the ring in a volcano. Not only was my mom a good storyteller (and she clearly adored Tolkien's work too), but also the story of little people saving the world was inspiring to a short kid like me. When you're the shrimp of the class, it's wonderful to hear how a very small person can truly make a difference.

When I was in third grade, I finally read Tolkien's books. As a kid, I immersed myself in Middle Earth. So when Peter Jackson made such exquisite movies of the trilogy, it was, for me, quite literally a childhood story come to life.

That made being in Hobbiton, standing on the porch of Bag End, looking out over the Party Tree, it was all very special to me. Touristy, sure, but for a Tolkien fan -- of the books or the movies -- this was a must-see.

You could immediately tell why Jackson picked this sheep farm outside of Matamata to become the Shire. The site perfectly fit Tolkien's descriptions. The farm's rolling green hills exactly evoked the rural English countryside of Tolkien's own youth, which he turned into the Shire. In fact, you'd have a hard time finding such a site in England these days! This location was far off the road and recessed in such a way that you couldn't see any buildings, power lines, or signs of modern life.

And, of course, the big tree was situated by a little lake, and hillsides meant for hobbit holes faced this view. Of the holes themselves, only their rough wood cutouts remained. The pretty facades were removed immediately after filming. In fact, only a freak storm stopped everything from being quickly bulldozed. In the intervening time, the farm owners got permission from New Line Cinema to stop the teardown and run tours instead.

We're lucky it all worked out that way!