{"id":11694,"date":"2024-05-06T22:39:00","date_gmt":"2024-05-06T10:39:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/myblogary.com\/?p=11694"},"modified":"2024-05-11T19:30:59","modified_gmt":"2024-05-11T07:30:59","slug":"if-you-dont-keep-your-feet-theres-no-knowing-where-youll-be-swept-off-to-j-r-r-tolkien","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/myblogary.com\/index.php\/2024\/05\/06\/if-you-dont-keep-your-feet-theres-no-knowing-where-youll-be-swept-off-to-j-r-r-tolkien\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cIf you don\u2019t keep your feet there\u2019s no knowing where you\u2019ll be swept off to.\u201d -J.R.R. Tolkien"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

May 6<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An excellent a\u00e7a\u00ed bowl and coffee from Soul Boul<\/a> in Hamilton started our day. We got some yummy looking pastries and a sourdough bread to go from Volare<\/a>, a well known Hamilton bakery on the North Island.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We drove out of Hamilton to Hobbiton. What a remarkable place, it\u2019s no wonder they chose it as the set.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I didn\u2019t 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\u2019t totally in the dark about what I was seeing, but I was a far cry from a knowledgeable fan like our tour guide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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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\u2019s watched the movies, his response was, \u201ctoo many times to count and I started the second one again last night.\u201d \ud83d\ude31 He\u2019s clearly a passionate fanboy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

LOTR was filmed entirely in NZ. More than 150 locations were used throughout both the North and South Island.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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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\u2019s works. Jackson was insistent on the location having three things: mountains, green landscape and tree lines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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