I remember reading the JRR Tollien series of books when I was young. I could not put them down The Hobbit nor the Lord of the Rings books. What a literary genius to contrive these stories and tell them so well. So, I was delighted when they brought the story to the big screen.
I'm really not much of a movie watcher these days. Movies seem contrived and to follow a known pattern. Cookie cutter movies mostly with no originality. No surprises, just two hours of boredom. But not with these movies. They were brilliantly brought to life by Peter Jackson.
The setting for the movie was New Zealand. The setting for The Shire, where the Hobbits lived, was on a farm in Matamata, an area about two hours south of Auckland.
I flew into Auckland from Sydney, Australia and was anxious to make the journey. Fortunately, I did not have to travel on foot like the hobbits did as there were ample tours to take you there.
I chose to take a small van tour to The Shire from Auckland as car rentals were a bit expensive and the tour price reasonable at the time. So, off I was for the two hour journey to the place of fantasy I so adored as a child reading in those books.
There were only two others in the van with me besides the driver. They were poker players. One of the two had actually won a World Poker Event in Europe, but I don't follow poker to recognize or remember his name. I just remember all they did on the two hour trip down and back was play poker in the van. No attention made to the beautiful scenery of the country. Oh well, to each their own!
Now I will inform you I cannot retrieve my pictures of this trip so you will have to rely on my memory and some stock pictures for this post. But the story is not all that incredible that it is hard to believe.
The Shire in real life looks just like the movie. There are no nearby houses or traffic to contaminate this farm setting.
So peaceful, even though there were many tourists around.
The hobbit homes were all built into the embankment of the field. But there is a hidden secret here. Most these homes are nothing but a facade. Only a wall and round door built into the dirt embankment.
The doors do not open. Only dirt lie on the other side of the wall. But still impressive to see!
But there are some hobbit homes unlike the others. Some you can peer into and see the inside. We were allowed entry into but one of the homes.
There are a total of 44 of these hobbit homes. The doors to the homes vary in size for movie effects. Large doors are used to make humans look like small hobbits, where small doors to give the appearance of the larger wizard.
The area also has beautiful real vegetable gardens as seen in the movies. It added a lot to the overall ambiance of The Shire.
At the end of the two hour tour we were taken to The Green Dragon. To fans, you will remember this as the pub they often visited. Here you could purchase an ale if inclined.
After 30 or so minutes at the pub and surrounding area, I boarded the van with my poker champion companion and his friend and we were off to Auckland.
This is a place I would recommend whether you are a Tolkien fan or not. It is a unique location in the world which I have not experienced similar in my travels.