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canadian_turtleMood: 
|| Ecstatic
Tune : Watching Being Erica
June 20: Out of 178 sets built for The Lord of the Rings trilogy in New Zealand only Hobbiton hasn't been destroyed entirely. They intended to (New Line Cinema that is) but when there was a period with a load of rain they had to pause their work and several months and many meetings later it was decided to leave the remaining hobbit holes. The place now called Hobbiton is built on the land of a sheep farmer's family and apparently their laid back New Zealand attitude towards New Line Cinema during filming and their unconditional co-operation is what made the movie company decide to leave 17 hobbit holes for the most part intact.
There are a lot of rules that have to be followed though, like the tour guides can not wear costumes, no video footage of the movies may be shown (though NLC donated pictures for storyboards) and unfortunately it's prohibited to bring the set back into the condition it was while filming; the set pieces can not be painted nor decorated with flowers, because that would be copyright infringement. I had seen pictures online of the set as it remains now and it didn't seem like much more than some wooden panels in a grassy land which meant I didn't have very high expectations of the visit. But it turned out to be absolutely amazing! There was a lot more left than I expected and it was surreal to stand in the middle of the outstretched landscape and seeing hills as far as my eyes could reach and all the hobbit holes around me.
The tour itself was amazing as well. Our guide was hilarious and knew a lot of interesting facts I hadn't heard of before. Even on the way there he was explaining stuff as we passed it, like the neighbour's farm was rented for four months by Peter Jackson and one of the rooms was turned into a film studio so they could watch footage there while filming. He told us about the building of the set pieces (they even had a polyurethane factory on set (!) because most of the fake brick was made of it), how they made the fake smoke that came out of the chimneys to make it look like hobbits were really living inside of the holes (they lit bee wax at the top of it) and how they got the oak tree above Bag End (which was a tree found elsewhere in Matamata, broken down into smaller pieces, labeled and build back up like a Jigsaw on top of Bag End. And after all that trouble it can only be seen for 25 seconds in all 3 movies combined, lol). He pointed out where the "star" trailers used to be, which bushes were "camouflaged" to look like England natives instead of New Zealand ones (because Peter Jackson is a perfectionist and thought that Tolkien fanatics would notice if one bush was out of place), etcetera.
We walked for about an hour around what used to be Hobbiton passing all the hobbit holes as well as the party tree (which is totally real and hugely impressive irl, no CGI used there) from Bilbo's birthday bash with the lake in the background. Other things that used to be there but are no longer - like the bridge Gandalf and Frodo crossed - were marked with coloured poles so we knew where they used to stand. We also had a lot of fun for a while taking pictures around the remaining holes, pretending to be hobbits and stuff.And I totally finished the tour guide's lines every now and again when we was quoting from the movie, even though I haven't seen them in years.
After the tour we went back down the hill where there was a sheep shearing demonstration and we bottle fed some lamb; they were adorable <3 We also quickly browsed through the souvenir shop and snapped some shots from a cafe called "Shire's Rest" and the entrance to the toilets because they made it look like a hobbit hole. All in all it was a very awesome day that made me feel like a total LotR fangirl again. *wants to rewatch the movies really badly now*
On our way
We have arrived! It felt so surreal, omg
The party tree!
Me hugging it, uhm... it was the tour guide's idea >.<
Lake behind the tree
Where the bridge used to be (crossing the water between the orange and blue poles)
What it used to look like
In the distance you can see where they filmed the first scene of Gandalf and Frodo seeing each other again
Hobbiton <3
The one with the chimney is Sam's
Better view on lake/party tree
BAG END!! (Bilbo and Frodo's place)
On my knees, trying to be hobbit size, lol It was possible to go into Bag End btw, it wasn't very big but big enough to walk around in
The amazing view as seen through one of the windows from Bag End
What is now left from the oak tree that stood on top of Bag End (the guide said that the rest of the pieces over the years have been taken by fans as souvenirs idk if he was joking...)
Sam's place again
I really like this picture
Sheep shearing demo
The lambs were so cute <3
The toilets, I kid you not, lol
I think this shows Sam and Frodo...
...with Gollum on the other side
On our way back
Matamata College is in the centre of the village and it's where they held auditions for the extras in Hobbiton. Apparently over 1000 people auditioned, 300 got selected and only 16 of those were locals
More pictures can be found HERE.
|| EcstaticTune : Watching Being Erica
June 20: Out of 178 sets built for The Lord of the Rings trilogy in New Zealand only Hobbiton hasn't been destroyed entirely. They intended to (New Line Cinema that is) but when there was a period with a load of rain they had to pause their work and several months and many meetings later it was decided to leave the remaining hobbit holes. The place now called Hobbiton is built on the land of a sheep farmer's family and apparently their laid back New Zealand attitude towards New Line Cinema during filming and their unconditional co-operation is what made the movie company decide to leave 17 hobbit holes for the most part intact.
There are a lot of rules that have to be followed though, like the tour guides can not wear costumes, no video footage of the movies may be shown (though NLC donated pictures for storyboards) and unfortunately it's prohibited to bring the set back into the condition it was while filming; the set pieces can not be painted nor decorated with flowers, because that would be copyright infringement. I had seen pictures online of the set as it remains now and it didn't seem like much more than some wooden panels in a grassy land which meant I didn't have very high expectations of the visit. But it turned out to be absolutely amazing! There was a lot more left than I expected and it was surreal to stand in the middle of the outstretched landscape and seeing hills as far as my eyes could reach and all the hobbit holes around me.
The tour itself was amazing as well. Our guide was hilarious and knew a lot of interesting facts I hadn't heard of before. Even on the way there he was explaining stuff as we passed it, like the neighbour's farm was rented for four months by Peter Jackson and one of the rooms was turned into a film studio so they could watch footage there while filming. He told us about the building of the set pieces (they even had a polyurethane factory on set (!) because most of the fake brick was made of it), how they made the fake smoke that came out of the chimneys to make it look like hobbits were really living inside of the holes (they lit bee wax at the top of it) and how they got the oak tree above Bag End (which was a tree found elsewhere in Matamata, broken down into smaller pieces, labeled and build back up like a Jigsaw on top of Bag End. And after all that trouble it can only be seen for 25 seconds in all 3 movies combined, lol). He pointed out where the "star" trailers used to be, which bushes were "camouflaged" to look like England natives instead of New Zealand ones (because Peter Jackson is a perfectionist and thought that Tolkien fanatics would notice if one bush was out of place), etcetera.
We walked for about an hour around what used to be Hobbiton passing all the hobbit holes as well as the party tree (which is totally real and hugely impressive irl, no CGI used there) from Bilbo's birthday bash with the lake in the background. Other things that used to be there but are no longer - like the bridge Gandalf and Frodo crossed - were marked with coloured poles so we knew where they used to stand. We also had a lot of fun for a while taking pictures around the remaining holes, pretending to be hobbits and stuff.
After the tour we went back down the hill where there was a sheep shearing demonstration and we bottle fed some lamb; they were adorable <3 We also quickly browsed through the souvenir shop and snapped some shots from a cafe called "Shire's Rest" and the entrance to the toilets because they made it look like a hobbit hole. All in all it was a very awesome day that made me feel like a total LotR fangirl again. *wants to rewatch the movies really badly now*
On our way
We have arrived! It felt so surreal, omg
The party tree!
Me hugging it, uhm... it was the tour guide's idea >.<
Lake behind the tree
Where the bridge used to be (crossing the water between the orange and blue poles)
What it used to look like
In the distance you can see where they filmed the first scene of Gandalf and Frodo seeing each other again
Hobbiton <3
The one with the chimney is Sam's
Better view on lake/party tree
BAG END!! (Bilbo and Frodo's place)
On my knees, trying to be hobbit size, lol It was possible to go into Bag End btw, it wasn't very big but big enough to walk around in
The amazing view as seen through one of the windows from Bag End
What is now left from the oak tree that stood on top of Bag End (the guide said that the rest of the pieces over the years have been taken by fans as souvenirs idk if he was joking...)
Sam's place again
I really like this picture
Sheep shearing demo
The lambs were so cute <3
The toilets, I kid you not, lol
I think this shows Sam and Frodo...
...with Gollum on the other side
On our way back
Matamata College is in the centre of the village and it's where they held auditions for the extras in Hobbiton. Apparently over 1000 people auditioned, 300 got selected and only 16 of those were locals
More pictures can be found HERE.
