Peter Jackson had flown over the farm in 1998 and decided it was a perfect place to create Hobbiton for Lord of the Rings. They had created it out of balsa wood and polystyrene, and then destroyed it afterwards. When they decided to make The Hobbit they recreated it all again, but properly. It took 2 years and each of the 39 hobbit holes has it's own building permit!
You walk around with a guide who generally is a local that was also involved with the filming, so can tell stories and share secrets of how they shot the film, and where the errors are!
The attention to detail was phenomenal. Shipping in English sheep, because New Zealand sheep didn't look "authentic enough" for a 2 second shot! Planting dwarf apple trees and then picking off all of the leaves and replacing them with leaves and fruit from a plum tree (apparently plum trees are too big!)!!!! The hobbit holes vary in size from 54% to 90% scale depending on who was standing in front!
The tree above Bagg End is a fake with 200,000 oak leaves from Taiwan individually hand tied on!
The whole place is just magical. You then follow the signs around the lake to the Green Dragon, where you can enjoy some local brew!
Honestly we were all so fascinated, and it was just such an awesome morning! I don't care if we did upset our guide or if my brother did text me I was geeky! He was just jealous! Maybe I won't give him his present after all!!!!
What they did say it that rumour has it that Peter Jackson has so much unused footage he will release 5 hour versions of each Lord of the Rings film, after The Hobbit, including the proper ending for Saruman.
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