Honeymoon Day 2 - Hobbiton!
Almost without fail, the first thing anyone asked us when we said we were going on our honeymoon to New Zealand was "Ooh are you going to visit Hobbiton?!?" or some other LOTR themed question. I must confess, that was literally the first thing we booked aside from the flight. I couldn't go all the way across the globe to Middle Earth and NOT go see Hobbiton if I had the chance. This was the only LOTR themed activity we did, and trust me, there are many available.
Hobbiton is a bit like Disneyworld in a way. There is an attention to detail there like I have seen in almost no other place. Interestingly, it has actually been built twice. It was originally built in a temporary form for the filming of the LOTR movies, at the end of which it was burnt down for the scene in Galadriel's mirror (this includes the Green Dragon Inn, which is where your tour ends with a beer/hard cider/ginger beer). Then, a few years later, Hobbiton and the Green Dragon Inn were re-built to the exact same specifications for the filming of The Hobbit movies. This time, they were built with permanence in mind, as Peter Jackson and the owner of the farm where Hobbiton resides had struck a deal to give tours. Amazingly, they split the revenue down the middle - none goes to the studio, according to our guide.
There are two sizes of hobbit holes, both exterior only (all the interior shots were filmed at a studio). One is built small to make human actors look large, and one is built larger, to make human actors appear hobbit-sized. They have so many tiny little hobbity details that each new hobbit hole was a source of glee. Tiny chess sets, mailboxes, baked goods, laundry lines, all are miniature and amazing. There are 40-something hobbit holes in total, giving the feeling of being in a true little village.
Another aspect of the village is the garden. Even today, they have a full time staff of gardeners on site whose job it is to grow oversized vegetables that make humans look more like hobbits. Huge pumpkins, squash, cucumber, you name it. There is also a small orchard where a short scene occurs in the movie, which currently has some dwarf apple and pear trees in it. However when the filming was happening, because of one line in the LOTR books where it describes plum trees, those trees were stripped of their leaves and fruit and artificial plum leaves and fruit were instead added. Why not just use plum trees in the first place? Well, Peter Jackson didn't like the way those trees looked. Funny that he paid so much attention to keeping true to the books in the LOTR movies and took so many liberties with the Hobbit films.
We also learned some more general things about being a hobbit, such as the higher you lived on the hill, the more wealthy and respected you were in the hobbit community. Bag End, the Baggins residence, sits at the very top of the hill. It, in turn, is topped by a large fake oak tree (since there aren't native oaks in this area of New Zealand). Once again, at the time of filming in and around that oak tree, Peter Jackson decided that the leaves weren't quite the right color, and actually made some poor guy spray paint each of the thousands of leaves on the tree individually to perk them up. There's a running gag amongst the Hobbiton employees now that even if they are having a bad day, they aren't having a "re-paint the oak tree" bad day.
Above is the famous Bag End hobbit hole itself, complete with a branch of that famous oak tree peeking out at the top. It was a pretty cool moment seeing the bench where Bilbo sits smoking his pipe at the beginning of the Hobbit, and where so many important adventures begin. Here it was, near the beginning of our own little adventure.
Ending the tour at the Green Dragon Inn was a nice treat. Charlie ordered the ginger beer, and I had the hard cider. We also bought a scone at their little cafe, which turned out to be a cheese scone that was absolutely delicious. This was our first foray into the amazing dairy products in New Zealand, which made me wish I wasn't lactose intolerant. Many Lactaid pills were had on this trip.
Finally, it was time to say goodbye to Hobbiton, and continue on our way to Rotorua. All told, we had about 4 hours of drive time this day, so it was perfect being able to break up the trip with the tour. I neglected to mention how in the middle of nowhere Hobbiton is, or really, how MOST of New Zealand is. Hobbiton fit right in though, with the peaceful rolling green hills and sheep.
Once we got to Rotorua, we checked into our hotel and headed over to our other booking for the day at the Polynesian Spa. I don't have any pictures there, because we didn't bother to take the camera, and because the main attraction there is a number of natural hot spring baths so camera and water and people trying to relax was not the best combo. The baths are supplied by hot springs near the lake in Rotorua and smell a little like sulphur, but feel amazing on the skin because the water is so mineral rich. They had a few different pools of varying temperatures, including a cold plunge pool that Charlie loved but I was way too chicken to try out. I enjoyed my relaxing hot baths, and Charlie got his hot-cold contrast bath, so everyone was happy. Then we had a light meal and massages, followed by a private pool to relax and end the evening. What a fantastically "honeymoon-like" activity, and a perfect way to end the day.
Hobbiton is a bit like Disneyworld in a way. There is an attention to detail there like I have seen in almost no other place. Interestingly, it has actually been built twice. It was originally built in a temporary form for the filming of the LOTR movies, at the end of which it was burnt down for the scene in Galadriel's mirror (this includes the Green Dragon Inn, which is where your tour ends with a beer/hard cider/ginger beer). Then, a few years later, Hobbiton and the Green Dragon Inn were re-built to the exact same specifications for the filming of The Hobbit movies. This time, they were built with permanence in mind, as Peter Jackson and the owner of the farm where Hobbiton resides had struck a deal to give tours. Amazingly, they split the revenue down the middle - none goes to the studio, according to our guide.
There are two sizes of hobbit holes, both exterior only (all the interior shots were filmed at a studio). One is built small to make human actors look large, and one is built larger, to make human actors appear hobbit-sized. They have so many tiny little hobbity details that each new hobbit hole was a source of glee. Tiny chess sets, mailboxes, baked goods, laundry lines, all are miniature and amazing. There are 40-something hobbit holes in total, giving the feeling of being in a true little village.
Another aspect of the village is the garden. Even today, they have a full time staff of gardeners on site whose job it is to grow oversized vegetables that make humans look more like hobbits. Huge pumpkins, squash, cucumber, you name it. There is also a small orchard where a short scene occurs in the movie, which currently has some dwarf apple and pear trees in it. However when the filming was happening, because of one line in the LOTR books where it describes plum trees, those trees were stripped of their leaves and fruit and artificial plum leaves and fruit were instead added. Why not just use plum trees in the first place? Well, Peter Jackson didn't like the way those trees looked. Funny that he paid so much attention to keeping true to the books in the LOTR movies and took so many liberties with the Hobbit films.
We also learned some more general things about being a hobbit, such as the higher you lived on the hill, the more wealthy and respected you were in the hobbit community. Bag End, the Baggins residence, sits at the very top of the hill. It, in turn, is topped by a large fake oak tree (since there aren't native oaks in this area of New Zealand). Once again, at the time of filming in and around that oak tree, Peter Jackson decided that the leaves weren't quite the right color, and actually made some poor guy spray paint each of the thousands of leaves on the tree individually to perk them up. There's a running gag amongst the Hobbiton employees now that even if they are having a bad day, they aren't having a "re-paint the oak tree" bad day.
Above is the famous Bag End hobbit hole itself, complete with a branch of that famous oak tree peeking out at the top. It was a pretty cool moment seeing the bench where Bilbo sits smoking his pipe at the beginning of the Hobbit, and where so many important adventures begin. Here it was, near the beginning of our own little adventure.
Ending the tour at the Green Dragon Inn was a nice treat. Charlie ordered the ginger beer, and I had the hard cider. We also bought a scone at their little cafe, which turned out to be a cheese scone that was absolutely delicious. This was our first foray into the amazing dairy products in New Zealand, which made me wish I wasn't lactose intolerant. Many Lactaid pills were had on this trip.
Finally, it was time to say goodbye to Hobbiton, and continue on our way to Rotorua. All told, we had about 4 hours of drive time this day, so it was perfect being able to break up the trip with the tour. I neglected to mention how in the middle of nowhere Hobbiton is, or really, how MOST of New Zealand is. Hobbiton fit right in though, with the peaceful rolling green hills and sheep.
Once we got to Rotorua, we checked into our hotel and headed over to our other booking for the day at the Polynesian Spa. I don't have any pictures there, because we didn't bother to take the camera, and because the main attraction there is a number of natural hot spring baths so camera and water and people trying to relax was not the best combo. The baths are supplied by hot springs near the lake in Rotorua and smell a little like sulphur, but feel amazing on the skin because the water is so mineral rich. They had a few different pools of varying temperatures, including a cold plunge pool that Charlie loved but I was way too chicken to try out. I enjoyed my relaxing hot baths, and Charlie got his hot-cold contrast bath, so everyone was happy. Then we had a light meal and massages, followed by a private pool to relax and end the evening. What a fantastically "honeymoon-like" activity, and a perfect way to end the day.
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