On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
We have two more sets of holiday pics but three more days until New Years, so I thought this would be the perfect time to post this charming set of pics from Hobbiton!
If you still have holiday pics from when you were little, it’s not too late to send them in. They can be added to the two final When we Were Little posts.
El-Man
Toured Hobbiton in January 2016 with my partner, my sister, and her kids. The initial stopping point off the road is a bit touristy with shiny new building, coffee place, and gift shop, but then you board buses to take you down a winding dirt road to the actual rolling hills where Hobbiton was built. It is surrounded by a working farm, after all.
First you are greeted with a charming sign…
…and then you are in. Frodo’s (and Bilbo’s) house is on the top left.
Unfortunately, the bread and other snacks are not real.
The door is real and does work, but the tunnel only goes back a few feet.
Pumpkin soup, anyone?
Real cider on tap!
Photostitch of the Green Dragon and the lake, the last sight before you depart.
JPL
How fun!
sab
Where is this? NZ?
Chris T.
The LoTR film production crew had to remove all traces of all sets from most if not all locations. Not sure if the Matamata farmer’s field was one of these, but I suspect it was. So these are probably rebuilds added for the tourists.
Fun anyway, but my favorite (er favourite) spots are mostly on the South Island. (and @sab: yes, Matamata is NZ, North Island, kind of near the center, er, centre. Look for Rotorua or Hamilton or Taupo on maps, then kind of in between all of those.)
EntroPi
Visited this as our Christmas trip while seeing family in 2019. Pretty glad we didn’t wait.
Hobbiton is a lot of fun.
…but that’s true of most of New Zealand.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Chris T.: We visited Hobbiton a number of years ago. I think I read that there was some delay in removing the film sets from the Hobbiton site–weather maybe? Anyway, the farmer had time to ask that what was there be left in place. Then more has been built since.
I loved this place.
zhena gogolia
WHERE THE F IS RICHARD ARMITAGE?
Far over the misty mountains cold . . .
youtube.com/watch?v=fpJj0RhHeQg
lee
Interesting little tidbit:
My youngest is 21 and a huge LOTR fan. She has vowed that her first drink of alcohol is going to be at The Green Dragon. So far she has kept her vow!
A trip to NZ kept getting pushed back for one reason or another and then the pandemic came along. Post pandemic that is going to be our first big trip.
El-Man
@lee: Don’t forget, peak time is our summer, which is your winter, or now. And bookings are essential, if you want one of the pricier tours – http://www.hobbitontours.com
lee
@El-Man: Her #1 item is a visit to Hobbiton anything after that is just icing. Thanks for the link, I’ll keep that in mind.
We probably have another year before the pandemic is over and normal travel is resumed.
counterfactual
@Chris T.: Once upon a time, a crazy film producer asked a farmer to put a film set in his back field. The farmer said, “Sure mate, but you have to remove all the crap when you’re done.” Then a few years later, all these foreign tourists started showing up, willing to pay money to walk through the field where the sets used to be. When the crazy film producer showed up again to start filming The Hobbit, the farmer said, “Sure mate, but this time I’m getting money to put these in permanently.”
WaterGirl
@El-Man: I’m so glad to see you here! Especially since you didn’t get any advance notice that your Hobbiton post would be up this week.
It just seemed like the perfect thing for today before we get to the last 2 days of Holidays When We Were Little.
El-Man
@WaterGirl: No problem, it was a pleasant surprise to kind of a crap day. I have a few other photos to share, mainly from Tiritiri Matangi, a native bird sanctuary island we’ve visited a couple of times. But they can come later. :)