VictoriaMay 6
Lucinda stood outside and waved goodbye to us this morning. We had a wonderful visit with her and Michael. Meeting people as kind and hospitable as they are has been a definite highlight of the trip.
An excellent açaí bowl and coffee from Soul Boul in Hamilton started our day. We got some yummy looking pastries and a sourdough bread to go from Volare, a well known Hamilton bakery on the North Island.
We drove out of Hamilton to Hobbiton. What a remarkable place, it’s no wonder they chose it as the set.
I was relieved to learn that almost 50% of the people on the Hobbiton Movie Set Tour have never seen any of the Lord of the Rings movies or read the Tolkien books.
I didn’t have to cower in the back of the group, hidden behind fans who were much more qualified to answer LOTR and Hobbit trivia than me. I watched the first LOTR movie, so I wasn’t totally in the dark about what I was seeing, but I was a far cry from a knowledgeable fan like our tour guide.
He had two full length LOTR tattoos, one on each arm. He has worked giving tours for eight years, and when Mitch asked him how many times he’s watched the movies, his response was, “too many times to count and I started the second one again last night.” 😱 He’s clearly a passionate fanboy.
LOTR was filmed entirely in NZ. More than 150 locations were used throughout both the North and South Island.
Our tour today took place in Matamata, a 1,250 acre working sheep and beef farm used to portray the Shire region of Middle Earth.
An aerial search in 1998 led Peter Jackson and his scouts to the Alexander farm in the heart of Waikato, a perfect setting for the adaptation of Tolkien’s works. Jackson was insistent on the location having three things: mountains, green landscape and tree lines.
Members of the NZ Army helped build roads, lay soil, plough fields, build sets and tend a vegetable garden. The set was built for LOTR, then later recreated for The Hobbit. Forty four permanent Hobbit Holes were built to different scales, according to the size of the actor being filmed.
Most holes are facades, but the recently finished Bagshot Row allowed us to view the interior of a Hobbit dwelling.
The attention to detail was amazing: rustic wooden hobbit sized furniture, a crackling wooden fire, clothes in wardrobes and knick-knacks on the shelves. We had 20 minutes to wander around. I could’ve easily spent much longer.
To be cast as a Hobbit, you had to be 5’ 2” and “round of face.”
At the height of the season, there are 2,500 people a day who go on the tour at $72 USD a ticket. Do the math and you’ll see what a huge moneymaker this place is! That’s over $60m a year. Not bad use of farm land I’d say. Probably more revenue than the livestock generates. 🤔
Just announced! Two new LOTR movies are forthcoming in 2026, location TBD.
At the end of the tour, we got some free South Farthing Hobbiton cider and ginger beer and had a chance to roam for 20 minutes in a cafe overlooking the set.
Rotorua was our next destination.
Rotorua is nicknamed “Rotovegas” because its strip of restaurants and businesses similar to Las Vegas. The nickname also acknowledges the city’s tourist and Maori entertainment industry, which is a major part of its economy. Some say that the town’s neon motel signs make it look like a smaller, less glamorous version of Vegas at night. To us, it didn’t look like that when we arrived, but hey, some people have a wild imagination. We’ll have to see if the food culture lives up to our Vegas expectations.
The town is the heart of geothermal activity, Māori culture, hot springs, geysers, forest walks, bike rides, mud baths and so much more. As a result of the geothermal activity, there is a strong sulfur dioxide smell in the town. People said we’d get used to it but I’m not so sure.
We checked into our Airbnb when we arrived in Rotorua. As soon as I walked in and explored the house, I had a weird feeling that something bad happened there. The whole place just creeped me out. Trying to dismiss it, we settled in and went to dinner at Atticus Finch. Another meal that was hyped up, coupled with an absolutely clueless server. Disappointing! Sorry, no match for Vegas dining.
We got back to the house and went to watch a movie in the den. I was about to sit on the floor when I noticed the carpet was absolutely filthy. Ugh. As we explored more of the house, we noticed dead bugs smashed on walls and ceilings amongst other dirty areas and food debris on the kitchen ceiling. Hair (not ours) on the bathroom walls and in the tub and showers. There were cobwebs too. It was gross and it didn’t get better when we went to plug in the chargers for our phones and saw all the dust and dirt behind the nightstand and under the bed. It was like we were reliving Miss Havisham’s place in Great Expectations. We had great expectations for this place that fell far short. Not being able to do much about it at that late hour, we sent a note to the host asking to have the placed cleaned tomorrow, and we opened a complaint with Airbnb to let them know what was going on. Then, we went to bed, but not before checking to see if the sheets were clean (thankfully they were).
