Rotorua is New Zealand’s smelliest city! The entire city smells like rotten eggs, the smell coming from sulphur bubbling up from geothermal hot spots. There is almost no way to escape the smell, it is everywhere. You must get used to the smell if you live in Rotorua! We stayed here for only one night.
Despite the smell, Rotorua is worth a visit. This area of New Zealand is well known for it’s steaming hot springs, spurting geysers and exploding mud pools.
We visited Te Puia and after paying an exorbitant entrance fee we toured the thermal reserve with its spurting geysers, bubbling mud pools and many hot springs. The most famous is Pohutu (Big Splash), a geyser which erupts up to twenty times a day. It can spit water up to 30 metres skyward. Pohutu erupted whilst we were there but it was more six/seven metres than thirty metres! The best part were the gurgling, burping boiling mud pools which had us all transfixed.
Thereafter, our tour of Middle Earth continued with a visit to the Hobbiton movie set. This has got to be the prettiest little spot in New Zealand. Here you can tour the tiny hobbit holes that you see in both The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies. This was a tour that we all thoroughly enjoyed.
In September 1998, Sir Peter Jackson “discovered” the Alexander sheep and cattle farm during aerial searches for a suitable film site. Site construction of Hobbiton began in March 1999 for the filming of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. It was used for just several weeks of filming and not intended to be a permanent structure. With the making of the Hobbit movies Hobbiton was rebuilt as a permanent structure.
Now the Alexanders, the owners of the farm, run tours of the movie set. The only way to see Hobbiton is on a tour. Tours run every 10/15 minutes in peak summer season, starting at 9:30am, and go on all day. On Wednesday and Sunday there is a special twilight tour where the hobbit houses are illuminated. Dinner is also served, in the Green Dragon Public House. Our tour was at 1.40pm, as we had driven from Rotorua, having already visited Te Puia in the morning.
Our tour group consisted of approximately thirty people. Whilst on the Hobbiton movie set we wandered among the forty four hobbit holes dug into the hillside, surrounded by hobbit gardens and orchards, learned interesting facts about the filming of the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit movies, and enjoying the wonderful scenery. What a beautiful setting amongst the rolling hills and fertile pastures of the farm owned by the Alexander family. For the five of us, there was something special about this place. The hobbit holes would make an interesting overnight stay! Maybe one day we’ll be able to come and stay here for the night.
Peter Jackson obviously had an eye for detail as everything is painstakingly created, down to the tiniest detail. The oak tree at Bag End was brought to the set in numbered pieces, painstakingly reassembled, and then hand-painted leaves from Taiwan were wired to the tree to make it look alive. The trees in the orchard were supposed to be plum trees but plum trees would have been too tall so Peter Jackson had apple trees planted and then hand-made plums were attached to the branches. Every hobbit hole is complete with tiny details which make for a real spectacle.
Our tour concluded at the Green Dragon with a drink for everyone. The boys and I had the non-alcoholic ginger beer whilst Dave drank the ale. We loved this tour and it was fascinating to learn more about what goes into film production and set design. Plus, we are still daydreaming about what it would be like to stay in one of these Hobbit houses.
The Hobbiton Movie Set Tour was one of the highlights of our time spent in New Zealand. What was designed as a movie set is now a big money maker for the Alexander family, a family who just happened to own the perfect looking piece of property for “The Shire” in Peter Jackson’s eyes. It is amazing the level of detail that went into designing this set, right down to the washing hanging on the line outside many of the houses and the oak tree at Bag End with it’s thousands of hand-painted leaves. You don’t have to be a Lord of the Rings or Hobbit fan in order to enjoy a visit here, but it helps to be a kid at heart.
ABOUT THE HOBBITON MOVIE SET
Hobbiton is located just outside the town of Matamata, located one hour from Rotorua (70 km) and approximately two hours (160 km) from Auckland. There are tour operators that run tours to Hobbiton from Rotorua so staying in Matamata is not necessary. You can also drive yourself and book on a tour of the movie set as we did, leaving from the Shires Rest. We drove from Rotorua in the morning and did an early afternoon tour.
For a schedule of tours and prices, look at the Hobbiton Movie Set website. We ordered our tickets by telephone in advance which was a good thing since many of the morning tours were sold out on the day we visited Hobbiton. On Wednesday and Sunday evening during peak season there is the option of touring at twilight, ending with dinner at the Green Dragon. This would have been a lot of fun but would have meant staying nearby.
WHERE WE STAYED
In Rotorua we stayed at the All Seasons Holiday Park Rotorua, a family orientated campsite with giant dinosaurs everywhere! The park also has a heated indoor swimming pool which can be enjoyed at any time.
