The cafe and meeting place of the Hobbiton tour is located off the road, and surrounded by sheep pasture...
6:37am, Te Aroha YHA Had a scare last night before bed. I lost the car keys, and finally found them in the grass outside the house. I'll try using a bigger keychain, and a different pocket.
Slept solid till 6am, on the top bunk. Trying to do research now, though internet is very flaky. Some high overcast clouds today. Maybe the sun will break out for Hobbiton later this morning. 9:33pm, Rap, Raft 'n' Rock Backpackers hostel, Waitomo Caves We had a strawberry rhubarb yogurt for breakfast (NZ has delicious, large sized yogurts!), and departed the hostel at 8:25am. Just before leaving town, Wendy noticed her iphone was missing. We drove back and found it lying on the table. Glad we discovered it was missing before too long. So we were back on the road a few minutes later, and navigated our way to Matamata, home of the Hobbiton set of Lord of the Rings. We arrived 25 minutes early for our 9:50am tour, and visited the sheep next to the parking lot. Soon we made our way to Shire's Rest, the local café, for the tour (they have "second breakfast" on the menu).
The cafe and meeting place of the Hobbiton tour is located off the road, and surrounded by sheep pasture...
Not sure if they stocked the immediate area with cute lambies, or if it was just a coincidence that all the sheep near the parking lot were ultra cute...
ULTRA cute. After 5 minutes in the parking lot, it was safe to say that the Hobbiton attraction was already considered a success, regardless of how the film set would turn out to be, at least for Wendy...
An appropriate name for a cafe in Hobbiton-land...
2nd breakfast anyone??? That's about $13.50US...
I had wondered if we'd be allowed to take photos of the set, after all, the Hobbit will begin shooting next month. Turns out, we could indeed take pics for our personal use, but had to sign a waiver that we wouldn't share them with ANYONE, and not put them online, that is, until after the movies come out. Too bad I can't share the pics with you guys right now…
We joined a group of ~22 others on a bus, where a guide drove us along a dirt road (which the NZ Army was commissioned to build for quick access to the filming location) and into the rolling green farmland. The guide filled us in on details from the LOTR filming in 1999-2000. He pointed out where the animals were kept, where the food catering was (and will be for the next movies), and where some scenery shots were taken.
Then a lake came into view down a valley below, with a large thatched tavern, stone bridge (that Gandalf rode across in the beginning of FOTR), and mill. We continued on the road across the crest of a broad hill, and slowly descended down the hillside and to Hobbiton! Wow, pretty amazing to be able to say that. Lots of people on the bus were quite excited (including me!). It was safe certainly safe to be a LOTR geek here.
Here's the brouchure. We were able to visit the entire right half of the map. This map doesn't do justice at all to the richness of Hobbiton..
We picked a sweet time to visit Hobbiton, since prior to this year, all that remained from the LOTR set were 18 bare hobbit holes carved into the hill, stripped of everything but a plain white hobbit hole door. But now, the final details were being applied to the set (spraying lichen on the fence posts was the newest detail of the day). All the hobbit holes were recreated as they were in LOTR, decorated with flowers, gardens, chimneys, mailboxes, wood piles, clothes lines, fences, etc. There were fruit trees, bee hives, see saws, and benches in the fields. And to think this will soon be a "live" set in a few weeks!
Our guide recounted moments from the films at various spots, pointing out the exact angles they were filmed. The huge party tree above the lake was mighty impressive! We got to see Sam's house, where he walks up and is greeted by his kids and Rosie at the end of ROTK. We saw the road and hobbit hole where Gandalf shoots fireworks from the back of his cart for the children, while the old Hobbit smiles, then glours. We saw the party field for Bilbos party. We saw the house where the Black rider first arrives and asks about "Baggins". There were over 40 Hobbit holes, including a few new ones for the new movie, but in general, the entire set was replicated exactly the same as the first films. As for Bag End, we couldn't walk up to it, but got a good view of the green front door where Gandalf and Bilbo meet up. After the filming of The Hobbit is finished, this set will become a theme park of sorts, and people will be allowed to walk inside Bag End. We had much more time and access to the sets than I anticipated. The sun danced in and out of the clouds while we were there. In all, we had 75 minutes on the set. It was probably the closest thing to being a kid at Disneyland. So many people in the group were feeling very high while being surrounded by the Shire. Our guide mentioned details on the set that are barely recognizable in the movies, but are true to the book. Of course, wouldn't expect less from PJ. Sometime in Feb, when filming begins, the tours will be suspended for a couple months. Glad we could visit at this prime moment! Alas, no more pics, until the movies come out in a couple years... I had to sign a confidentiality agreement. :-( You can tell by the broken links how many cool pics I have though!
This is the house where the kids ran out to see fireworks shoot from the back of Gandalf's wagon...
This is where Bilbo stood to give his birthday speech in front of the large party tree...
This is Sam's house, where at the end of ROTK, he walk up the road, grabs his kids, and enters the house with Rosie...
The famous green door of Bag End, Bilbos house...
This is the house where the Black Rider asks the a hobbit, "Baaagginnnsss", and the hobbit says, "N-n-not h-h-here. They're in H-h-hobbitton," and runs away...
In due time, we arrived back to the bus, very content with our visit. It will be fun to re-watch the films, and tune in to The Hobbit, and sync up with our time on the set. Back at Shire's Rest, we attended a quick sheep shearing demo, and Wendy got to feed a baby lamb milk from a bottle. All in all, it was a wonderful morning outing among idyllic green pastures and farmland. We ate a light lunch on picnic tables outside, before hitting the road ~12;30pm.
After the shearing, bottles were handed out, and the little lambies shot out, apparently well aware it was milk time. They sucked ferociously. Wendy was in heaven. :-)
The Hobbiton experience was a complete delight, in every way. Highly recommended, and worth the $60NZ...
Our drive continued on a long scenic road through more Shire-like farmland, until we reached Cambridge, where we stopped to shop at a houseware store for a thermos, food container, towel, knife, and frying pan (since the quality at hostels varies greatly). Across the road we loaded up on groceries for dinner (including a weird egg-white cake), and continued towards Waitomo Caves, stopping once more at a dollar store in a small town, where we bought some "wet ones", travel pillow, and sunglasses.
Countdown was our new favorite grocery store. This cake looked a bit like angel food, but was more like meringue, and super sweet. A bit too sweet actually...
We arrived at our hostel ~3:45pm, and investigated black water rafting tours. Our first choice wasn't available till 1pm tomorrow, so we headed to the information center to inquire about other bookings. After long debate, we decided to try the Black Abyss tour from Black Water Rafting company. It's a 5 hour tour (2-3 hrs in caves), with a 120' abseil (lowering yourself down a wire straight into a cave), inner tubing down an underground river that's full of glow worms, a zip line, and jumping into pools. Pretty hardcore, and also expensive (~$175US). But this might be the only place in the world to experience it.
Next we returned to the hostel for dinner, and bought a BBH discount card ($45 each, and saves $5 per stay at BBHs, and includes a $20 phone card). Wendy cooked fish and made a salad. I booked tomorrow's hostel (a place in Egmont Village), via the phone card (no cell reception here). After dinner, we hit the road to explore a water fall and some land bridges/tunnels up the mountains. It was a windy 31km drive to reach the wide scenic waterfall, but the biggest surprise was the mammoth land-bridge that towered 100 feet above us. It was ~80' wide and 80' long (guesses). It felt otherworldly, and something I wouldn't have imagined. We also visited some tunnels, that are supposed to be filled with glow worms, but even though we hiked just after sunset, it was still too light to see them. We did hike through some cool tunnels in the twilight though.
...a waterfall. After a minute to snap some pics, we made the short walk back to the car...
Also in the area was a trail leading to a massive land bridge. I never would have imagined such a monstrous, cool thing. Super glad we decided to check it out. This should be highly recommended too, and it's not far from the road...
Looking out from under the land bridge (no earthquakes please!). Still sunlight out at 8:15pm during the drive back...
We stopped at a trail that supposedly had glow worms in the caves at night, but it was still twilight, and we didn't see any...
Back at the hostel, Wendy cooked up some dehydrated pumpkin pie mix. It didn't come out very well. Hopefully this portion was from last summer's stock, and not the large new batch we also brought.
This hostel just has 3 rooms, and is pretty quiet. Time for a shower. Nothing going on tomorrow until our 11am black water rafting trip, so plenty of time for sleep, though I'll probably be up before 7am as usual…