Our last did not involve a nice relaxing sleep in, instead we got up really early to drive out to Hobbiton to be there for our 9am tour. We arrived just in time and once again transferred over to a tour bus to get to the Alexander Farm.
Peter Jackson surveyed a lot of land via helicopter to find the perfect shooting location for Hobbiton and once we arrived on site it was clear why he picked this place. Wide open spaces, massive rolling hills and greenery everywhere. It was a beautiful spot and with the tour video playing the Lord Of The Rings music in the background it was starting to feel like we were in Middle Earth.
On our tour we learned that this farm became quite popular once the movie was released but soon after that the set was all packed up. Nevertheless, people would always stop by the farm to see where all the magic happened and eventually the set was rebuilt for the purpose of making it accessible to the public.
We also learned about the maintenance required for the farm as all the gardens and vegetation were the real thing, not props and therefore a number of staff to look after things.
It was really nice walking around, every now and then we would come across something that reminded us of a scene from the movies or a small detail like the tiny hobbit sized clothes handing on the clothes line out the back or the intricately painted design on a vase in a window that could have easily been missed and makes you appreciated how much effort goes into making a set like this.
Earlier in our trip we learned about the technique of forced perspective and it was also demonstrated here with various sizes of hobbit holes, most of which where too small to actually enter or were just a doorway with the base essentials behind it make it look like there was actually room inside where in actual fact there was not much more than the dirt from the hill it was built in.
After walking around and taking photos for a bit we arrived back at The Green Dragon Inn where we tasted some locally brewed beer and Amy and Rob tried on some Hobbit clothing.
From there it was on to The Party Tent, which I think is meant to be from the scene where Bilbo departs Hobbiton. The original booking was to be in a different section but regardless of where we were or what day it was, we were determined to have a Hobbit styled wedding feast!
After eating a pretty big meal and taking a few more photos of this picturesque place, we got back on our bus and back to our cars with our next and final stop being Auckland.
It was a big contrast arriving in Auckland from Hobbiton, we went from such a big open, green farm land to the dense concrete jungle of a major city in one car ride but to balance it out a little we decided to head to Mount Eden first which had a massive (green) crater at the top and nice panoramic views from the lookout point. We spent a bit of time wondering around, taking in the sights and reflecting on our awesome holiday.
We’ve done a lot of driving, ate a lot of burgers, seen cities, lush green hills, stunning lakes, rainbows, thick morning fog, ice capped mountains and even walked through an ice tunnel in the middle of a glacier and survived a cyclone wedding. I had my first helicopter and jet boat experiences and while we didn’t end up going to White Island to see a volcano up close, we got to see a good amount of volcanic hot springs and thankfully erupting volcanoes didn’t cancel this trip like my two previous attempts to going to Bali! All this with amazing company tons of fun and laughter!
A big thank you to Amy for organising this incredible holiday, your efforts a greatly appreciated!