Day 14 - 17: In A Hole In The Ground There Lived A Hobbit

After the ferry crossing to the north island, we checked in at our Wellington hotel and prepared for the next day, which would see us participate in a full day "Wellington Rover Lord Of The Rings Location Tour". Most of the scenes for the movies were filmed in and around Wellington so there are a lot of places to cover. The problem is that all props etc have of course been removed, so what is left over is just the normal landscape. You need to look at photos from the movie to be able to identify and remember what it looked like.

So thankfully our guide had photos for all the locations and explained in great detail what it looked like, what was filmed and how they did it. It's impossible to cover all locations so they picked a few choice ones, in fact because filming was so secretive, they are still discovering more locations as time goes by.

We had a group of 10 people in a small van so it was easy to move from location to location. I have included some photos below, most are from the Weta cave, the special effects company.

Starting with the location where Rivendell was based. They have only recently put up markers and signs.

One pylon indicated the height the characters are supposed to be, according to the book. Gandalf is only 1.7m tall!

Bilbo's contract. You can buy an authentic replica for $640 bucks.

 

Here's the original prop in the movie

 

Panorama of Wellington from the lookout at the end of the tour.

The next day we left Wellington to go on our longest drive of the holiday, 5.5 hours to Rotorua. We only had one night there, thankfully. The stench of sulphur is something I remember only too well from my last visit. We left early next morning to drive the one hour to Hobbiton, which is located close to Matamata.

The "I'm Going On An Adventure" Scene from the movie. And the same location below.

Bag End - Bilbo Baggin's home!

How it looks in the movie:

Scene from the movie, Bilbo jumping the fence.

The fence at Hobbiton.

View of the Green Dragon pub

It was raining, which meant great light for photos and reduced visitor numbers! We only had around 16 people on our tour, as opposed to the busloads of 40-60 people they have in peak season or when cruiseships come into Auckland. On average, they get about 1500 people per day in high season, with tours leaving every 10 minutes. Today we had tours every 15 minutes.
Towards the end of the tour you get a free choice of drink at the Green Dragon, a great little pub which can also be hired for functions.

Really loved this tour, it was great to be able to see the little hobbit holes and walk through Hobbiton! And do this without the hassle of having hundreds of people do the same.

We then drove the two hours to Auckland and will be departing from here two days from now, so this will likely be the last entry of this blog. Thanks for reading!