(birds chirping)
- Hello
(drumming)
(cow horn)
- I'm going on an adventure!
We were back on the road and full of excitement,
as we were off to Hobbiton.
We even made up some of our own travel hobbit songs.
♫ Gimmie a home among the hobbits, with lots of fobbits
♫ Uhhh, ring or two and a...
there's only one ring! (snickering)
- Okay guys here comes a right turn.
I've been signalling that I'm gonna go right for about
500 meters. So I think they know.
Okay, wide right; looking for danger; oncoming traffic?
No, no, into the wide lane, and we're good.
It's a lot harder than it looks, guys.
It's very counterintuitive.
We travelled endless country roads
and saw endless amounts of sheep.
But finally... (dramatic music)
We made it to Hobbiton!
We met our host Henry Horne, and started heading to the
Hobbinton grounds straight away.
- [Henry] The Hobbinton movie set was found by flying over
here in an airplane, way back in September of 1998.
Globally we are the first movie set to be created,
and we're the largest movie set ever built to make a movie.
So it's not taking away from all the locations around the
world with a film movie.
- Uh-huh.
- This is actually a purposely constructed venue to make a
movie, and that's the point of difference.
- Ohh.
- And so we now have that legal obligation to
maintain that illusion, and through our partnership with
Sir. Peter Jackson, we've been hired to create this
opportunity, and so internationally
we're the first of the kind.
- [Hannah] You know it seems to me like
a real general attitude, here in New Zealand,
is an attitude of kind of like, respect and preservation,
You know? Even just keeping, keeping it as it is and--
- Sure, sure.
- taking good care.
After our short drive Henry walked us through the gates
as we entered the magical grounds of Hobbiton.
That is so cool (laughs).
- [Henry] You're lucky, you're lucky because...
- [Hannah] Stepping into Hobbiton is an amazing experience
because the realistic nature of the hobbit holes
and the grounds themselves. Everything feels so tangible,
and real, and alive. I feel like I've been transported
to Middle Earth.
- [Henry] The Hobbiton set originally was built with
substandard materials, had no foundation to the deck
of the hut houses, so it was all about the movie process.
And so they created this beautiful little village
but it was very substandard.
- Mhm
- So when we took over the opportunity to run tours we had
the remnants. They had no doors, windows, chimneys,
no gardens. So we brought people on a journey of what
was done to create a movie.
- [Hannah] Over 70 workers and crafts people spent two years
creating this masterpiece. It is the amazing attention
to detail that makes Hobbiton come to life.
The homes have curtains in the windows, pipes and trays.
Woodworking, flowerpots and flowerbeds. Clean wash
hanging to dry. Freshly cut firewood, crafting projects.
There's a real orchard with quince, apple and pear trees,
and a real garden that is actually growing fruits
and vegetables. Hobbiton is a living set and so beautiful
in so many regards. And since everything is so real,
I just decided to knock on a door and see what would happen.
Hello?
- Hello!
(bell chime)
- It's been the transition over many years
to be where we finally are today.
And so it's been a journey of mixed emotions for some of us,
because we've gone from what was the original start,
which we were pretty excited about, to where we are today.
- Would you say it's been an unexpected journey?
- Unexpected journey, especially for this dairy farmer.
- (laughs)
As we walked the grounds Henry gave us even more
interesting facts about Hobbiton.
- So this is the Party Tree.
- [Hannah] Mhm
- [Henry] And that is the reason why they
show this from here.
- [Hannah] They came here originally just to shoot Bilbo's
birthday scene, and then they realised that they could
actually build Hobbiton within The Shire here; wonderful.
- [Henry] The artificial oak tree above Baggins,
which just finishes it off, is actually artificial.
Built in Wellington, so the fibreglass trunk,
silken branch lines and the last meter and a half
thereabouts of every branch is deadwood,
(mumbles) plastic leaves.
So we're gonna head up here,
get a little closer to Baggins--
- We're going to where Bilbo lives,
and then where Frodo lived.
- [Henry] Now take it back to The Fellowship of the Ring,
Gandalf arrived up here, he hopped off his caddy,
climbed that staircase, he knocked four times on the door
with his staff to be told: "No visitors, well-wishers
"or distant relations."
"What about very old friends?" Says Gandalf.
Bilbo walked through the door, met Gandalf on the patio.
They had a small embrace and as they parted Gandalf said
to Bilbo, "You haven't aged a day."
- This is so amazing (laughs).
We said goodbye to Bag End and headed down to Bagshot Row.
So what you see behind me is featured in the last scene
of Lord of the Rings, The Trilogy. It's the home
of Samwise Gamgee, and basically what happens is after Sam
sees his friends off to the White Shores,
(whispers) which is a metaphor for death, he returns to his
wife, and his child, and the simplicity of coming home.
And so to actually be here, at his home
experiencing that moment, kind of makes me oddly nostalgic,
in a weird way, even though it's not mine or anything like
that but uhm, yeah. I think it's a really beautiful scene
because after so much travelling, and so much adventure,
in the end what you want is peace, and security, and food.
First dinner, second dinner, all the dinners, all the time.
Goodnight.
We decided to take a quick walk out of Hobbiton
to the neighboring Bywater to visit the Green Dragon.
(bagpipe music)
The Green Dragon's calling, gotta get this delivery there
by sunset. It's gonna take a while, my horse is not here.
All this touring has made me pretty thirsty,
so we're gonna pop into the Green Dragon for a,
a quick little Brewski, courtesy of hobbits.
Maybe they'll be able to have something there
that's pint sized.
Ahh, a happy hearth. Mmm, detailed dragon woodworking.
This is where Rosie had her bar,
and here comes my delicious drink
served by the biggest hobbit I've ever seen.
He also has phenomenal hair.
(laughs)
Thank you.
Mmm, fresh brew. What a microbrew. Ah-ha.
And a quick selfie for the memory box. Thank you Henry,
and thank you Hobbiton.
(jazzy theme music)