Visiting Hobbiton

If you're going to make the hike all the way to New Zealand you HAVE to visit Hobbiton. You might recognize that word from the Lord of The Rings (LOTR) series. It's the town where the hobbits live. I've read the books and seen the movies, but I'm not the biggest LOTR fan in the world, but I have to admit it was SO COOL. Admittedly, the whole thing is a bit touristy, but that's to be expected.

A Brief Backstory:
The farm where Hobbiton is built was found by a location scout flying a helicopter over New Zealand. He was looking for a hilly place near a tree and a lake when he stumbled across the perfect farm. They then negotiated with the owners to come and build a temporary set for the movies. After the movies were filmed, they tore down the set. However, when it came time to film the hobbit, they re-negotiated with the land owners for another filming stint. This time, it was agreed to build Hobbiton using permanent materials. This way, when filming concluded, the land owners could keep Hobbiton alive as a tourist attraction. I believe the guide mentioned it is the second-most visited tourist attraction in New Zealand, so clearly this was clearly a good business move. Today, thousands of tourists come through and get to experience the magic of Hobbiton!

How the Tour Works:
We decided to take the bus option to get to Hobbiton. It was about an hour drive I think from Rotorua. We arrived at a little gift shop at a certain time, boarded the bus and off we went! They played a cool behind the scenes video of filming the movie on the way there and back, so that was neat. The bus was pretty small and cramped, but it's a bus, so what can you expect?

When we arrived, they gave us the chance to use the restroom at a little check in area. I think if you drive out here, you can check in here. Next we got back on the bus and drove on to the property. It was a pretty long drive! We then followed our guide (named Luke) on a tour through Hobbiton, ending with a drink at the Green Dragon.

After the tour, you get like 5 minutes in the gift shop ( no joke!) and then it's back on the bus and back to Rotorua.

The Highlights:
Of course, seeing the Hobbit holes was amazing! Many don't really open, but this one we were allowed to take a picture inside of. It's really just a few feet deep and is very much unfinished inside - wood beams, etc.

The Green Dragon was really neat as well. You get the choice of 4 drinks at the pub, which was so fun!

We even got to see Bilbo's house! Bag End was pretty epic. 

And of course, the whole place had props everywhere. We got to see the party tree and the May pole and much more. It was honestly a really cool feeling and I'm so glad we went!