We woke bright and early and walked up the hallway to the restaurant for breakfast. Not a buffet here, you ordered and waited for it to come. My Full English was excellent, although the mushrooms were not up to the standard of Auckland. Neil had an omelette which he said was pretty good. We were on the road promptly by 8.30 as we had a long-awaited party to attend… well, not actually a party , just a visit to The Shire. The other Shire! The road to the Hobbiton moview set was through rolling green dairy farming country, it was so pretty and easy to see why Peter Jackson had selected it for the movies.
We arrived at the main recepton location with plenty of time to spare for our “check in” and once again we were offered the option to go with an earlier tour. The Hobbiton Movie set is hugely popular, they see thousands of visitors a day during peak season and the whole operation runs like clockwork. We had time for a quick look in the shop before the call went up for the 9.20am tour to climb on the big green bus for our ride to the set. There was a screen at the front of the bus and a short video was shown with a welcome from Peter Jackson and also from Russell Alexander, the sheep farmer who owns the property. It was his father Ian who opened the door to Peter Jacksons location scouts and who agreed for their farmland to become the location for Hobbiton, not just for the Lord of the Rings, but also later for the Hobbit movies.
Our guide, Sam ( and yes that is his real name!) then took us for a wonderful walk throughout the entire set area. The original set for Lord of the Rings was destroyed after they had finished filming, but when Peter jackson came back to ask to use it again for the Hobbit, the Alexanders requested that the sight be constructed as a permanent fixture so that it could be used as a tourism location.
We wandered past one cute little hobbit hole after another, and Sam pointed out the incredible attention to detail that went in to designing and constructing the sets. We saw the artists house, the beekeepers house and the florists house amongst others. These are all just facades, there is virtually nothing to see behind their round doors.
We also walked past the vegetable and herb gardens that are planted with real plants and maintained by staff and harvested when ready.
Of course, one highlight was seeing the home of Bilbo and Frodo, Bag End; set high up on a hill overlooking the little lake and across to the Green Dragon Inn.
The next treat was being able to walk in and explore one of the two Hobbit Holes that were only completed in 2023. These two actually have a full enterior, with gorgeous little lounge rooms, bedrooms, kitchens and even bathrooms ( including a Hobbit toilet!) . They have been built to 8/10ths of normal size so you did have to duck when you walk in the door and along the little tunnels, but opened up enough to stand comfortably inside. The interiors are enchanting! Again, the attention to detail is extraordinary, it is heaven for anyone who loves the books or the movies .
The final stop of the tour was the Green Dragon Inn, where we were invited to choose one of their signature Ales or Cider, brewed specially for Hobbiton and available nowhere else. We both chose the Amber Ale and sat in a corner of the pub to enjoy it.
Eventually the tour came to an end, everyone but us in our group left in an Auckland Tour company bus, and Neil and I rode back to the Main reception building in one of the Big Green buses with just the driver and Sam for company. At this stage Sam told us it had been a unique tour for him, one of the couple in our group had become engaged on the tour!
We drove away from Hobbiton very satisfied with our tour, it’s not inexpensive but they really do give you value for money. We had known in advance that there would be some construction work going on while we were there, we saw a tractor and a part of the Party Field was roped off while work was constructed. It didn’t affect our enjoyment of the experience, however the company had decided to give a gift to anyone touring while the construction was going on, a pottery tankard with the emblem of the Green Dragon on it. Unexpected, and nice to have!
A short drive down the road we stopped in briefly at the little town of Tirau, for a little more Kiwiana. The Tirau iSite is housed in a building constructed of corrugated iron that looks like a huge sheepdog and Sheep. It is a nod to the claim that Tirau is called the Corrugated Capital of the World!
Next stop was a short detour to see the Putaruru Blue Spring, located on the Te Waihou Walkway it’s such a beautiful waterway, and claimed to be one of the purest water sources in the world. The spring Provides 70% of NZ’s bottled water. The water is incredibly clear and where it runs over the white sand it is a lovely turquoise colour, set off by the vivid green plants under the water and on the edge of the stream. We were interested to see someone had set up a Glamping Tent above the river, it would be alovely place to stay!
Then it was time to set off down the road to Rotorua, where we are spending the next two nights. It was about a 55 minute drive and we could see the lake as we dropped down the hills to the town. We stopped in to see Ohinemutu , a living Maori village. This was our first introduction to the boiling pools that are scattered around the lake. The lake water here was steaming and there were several ponds where the water was fizzing and steaming.
We also saw the pretty St Faith’s church which, although in the Tudor style on the outside, has a strong Maori influence on the inside including carvings and a stained glass window with a picture of Jesus wearing a Maori cloak. Unfortunately we were unable to go inside but we could see the engraved window from the outside.
We checked in to our hotel, The Millenium right on 2pm but got a shock when we arrived at the room. It was almost as hot as a sauna inside! We opened the sliding doors and I went to the desk to ask for advice as to how to turn the heat off. Unfortunately the advice wasn’t terribly helpful as the thermostat was alreadu off! Anyway, we decided to go for a walk and leave the window open to see if it would cool down.
We wandered around the lake, there is a pleasant boardwalk along the edge and the lake itself is home to many black swans, geese and ducks.
When we arrived back at the room the heating situation wasn’t improved so we ended up getting someone to come up and look at it. They have no cooling available at all at present, but the chap that came was at least able to adjust the pump so that only room temperature air was blowing in, instead of hot air. So we should be able to sleep tonight!
We walked down to the Pig and Whistle Pub for dinner tonight. The building was constructed in 1940 and served as the local police station until 1969. We sat in their enclosed beer garden and enjoyed a very tasty Steak, Ale and Mushroom pie. Tomorrow we have a day to explore the sights of Rotorua.
