Today was my birthday, and we spent it visiting the Shire from Tolkien's Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. We had heard mixed things about it, so we were worried that it would inevitably disappoint, but now having seen it I can say that it certainly did not. There were 44 hobbit holes there, and I took pictures of every single one of them. I know a lot of you have been asking for pictures, and I'm just as eager to share them with you, but I have to wait until I'm not on my hosts' internet connection to upload them so as not to use too much of their data. Don't worry, though, it won't be long until they're posted both to facebook and to this blog. Along with the 44 hobbit holes in Hobbiton, there was also a mill with a running water wheel, and, of course, the Green Dragon pub. They served a selection of authentic Hobbit style ales there, which were all free, as well as a delicious cider (we were very disappointed to find, though, that the drinks did not come in pints! Upon reflection, we realized that it was in the Prancing Pony in Brie that the hobbits expressed their delight at the increased serving size, not at the Green Dragon.) Apparently, the beers served at the Green Dragon, as well as the cider, are brewed specifically to be served there and cannot be found anywhere else. We learned a lot of pretty fascinating things about the Shire set as we toured around; for example, all of the footpaths there were not cleared or laid with machinery. Rather, they were blazed by hundreds of people whose job it was just to walk around Hobbiton on designated routes, so as to make the paths look authentic. Another group of guys had the job of pinning thousands of fake leaves and pieces of fruit to trees every day, and one guy walked around with buckets full of vinegar and wood shavings to dump on all of the fences so as to make them look older. Similarly, someone took a chainsaw around to all the hobbit holes to put scuffs in the wood and make them look realistic, and lots of things were built really big and all the plants and vegetable gardens were injected with steroids to make them grow taller and thus make the hobbits look as short as they do. Our guide told us that at one point, the Shire was producing strawberries that were nearly the size of soccer balls! The movie crew also had to import a lot of the trees and plants that can be seen in the Shire, so as to match up perfectly with Tolkien's vision of Middle Earth as presented in his books. Peter Jackson is quite the perfectionist, it seems, but I think we can all agree that it has paid serious dividends. A few other interesting things: the address of the Shire is on a road called Buckland, which is an area in the Shire in the books, but the road ironically was already named Buckland Rd. before Tolkien even put pen to paper. Peter Jackson just happened to pick that spot. And something I couldn't believe was that the whole of the Hobbit trilogy of movies was filmed in just twelve days! Compare that to the two years it took to construct the Shire, or the eight months that were required to negotiate the contract dictating that it would stay after filming was done as a permanent tourist destination on the Alexander sheep farm where it's located. Pretty crazy stuff.
Now on to the scenery and landscapes that surround the Shire. You'll all get to see for yourselves soon enough with the addition of the pictures, but let me just say for now that the place was absolutely stunning. There is no sign of development as far as the eye can see, no power lines or poles or anything, which was a major part of the reason that Jackson selected the Alexander farm as the ideal place for the Shire. There was also an ENORMOUS tree on site, which very well might have been the biggest tree I have ever seen, and one could only guess how old it might be. You guys might remember it from the films; if you go back and watch them I'm sure you could pick it out. Oh, and something I've forgotten to mention...none of the hobbit holes had any sort of a legitimate interior, as the scenes on the inside of them were all filmed down south in Wellington. There was only enough space behind each round door for a person to stand in, so as to enable the shots of hobbits walking in and out of their homes. Don't worry, though, we'll definitely be visiting the movie set in Wellington once we get down there, and I'll be sure to share that experience with you guys and take lots of pictures.
After the Shire, we headed into the city of Hamilton for a visit, as it was only a few kilometers down the road from Matamata (which is the actual name of the area that Hobbiton is in). Hamilton is a big city, certainly much bigger than we expected, but we only had about an hour and a half to spend there and we didn't get to do much beyond walking around a bit. It looked like it had a lot of really nice public parks and gardens, though, as well as a bunch of Irish pubs, which are always awesome (and, of course, tons of Thai and Indian restaurants on every corner! Mmmmm, curry). After our short visit to Hamilton, we piled back into our host's little Ford flatbed (which they call Utes here in Kiwiland), topped it off with gas (or should I say petrol?), and headed back to the farm so as not to be late for supper. We had homemade burgers and fries (called chips here), and, as always, the food was really tasty. Also worth mentioning was a shepherd's pie we had a few nights ago, which was equally delicious, followed by a bread pudding with steaming hot chocolate sauce (all homemade...I really can't say enough about Michelle's cooking). They've invited us to come back for Christmas, which might just be too good of an offer to pass up.
Tomorrow is another busy day for us; we're going into Auckland for a car fair, where we'll buy a car that looks mechanically sound and thus enable ourselves to travel onwards in our adventure across New Zealand. We'll be leaving the farm some time in the middle of next week, as we've now completed virtually all of the work that needs doing around the place, and we think our next stop will be Raglan, which is on the west coast of the north island and is called the surfing capital of the country. None of us can surf, and we're hoping we don't make fools of ourselves as we try to learn. Our buddy Dardan told us that the surfing camps there have some really awesome views and nice rooms, and they only cost about 150 bucks for a week's stay, including all of the equipment we'll need. We also hope to play a few rounds of golf soon, and after our stay in Raglan we're planning on traveling to another farm for some WWOOFing, where we've been told there are tons of ATV's to ride around on and up to 12 WWOOFers at a time. I'll of course be keeping you guys in the loop as our journey progresses, and I'll probably write another entry tomorrow to let you know how the car buying went. Bye for now, and I hope you've enjoyed your virtual visit to the Shire!
Kindest regards from the happiest of hobbits,
Jack
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