Hobbiton, Matamata, North Island, New Zealand

The weather, cold, wet, and windy, dampened some of our plans for hiking on the North Island, but the day we scheduled to visit the Hobbiton set near Matamata turned out to be sunny, with occasional strong gusts of wind. We arrived at the Shires Café and after a few minutes wait, boarded a bus to take us and about twenty others onto the Alexander’s ranch which Peter Jackson had picked out to build the Hobbiton set for his movies: the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and the Hobbit movies.

To get all the equipment out to the area of the farm picked (a place with a lake, a large party tree, hills that resembled JRR Tolkien’s descriptions, and no evidence of modern society) a serviceable road had to be built. The New Zealand army was recruited for this task and once done, the set construction began.

The sets for the first movie were built mainly from plywood and Styrofoam and wouldn’t stand the test of time and so were mostly torn down after the filming was completed. For the Hobbit movies the construction was made to be more permanent. Bricks, wood beams, stone, and cement were used to build the Hobbiton that stands today. Great care was taken with all the details. Real pegs were used when nails painted to look like pegs would have sufficed. Real arcing branches, hewn into the visible beams for the tops of the Hobbit holes were used to increase the authenticity of the fronts of the holes. Each door was designed to be able to be opened so Hobbits could be seen going in and out or looking out from the doorways. Most of the Hobbit holes have very little interior space. There are 44 doorways and 48 chimneys but no fireplaces inside the mounds. Each day of shooting involved lighting and placing smoke pots inside the chimneys so each would be smoking for the camera.

A special item that Peter Jackson needed was an evergreen oak tree. There were none available in New Zealand of the size that he needed (all were deciduous) and he couldn’t get one from overseas, so he built one. The oak on top of Bag End Hill is fake. Each leaf on the tree was put on by university students on holiday. During the spring winds a lot of the leaves have been blown off, leaving the tree half bare. For any additional filming that may need to be done, new leaves will have to be made and put back on. Consequently, the leaves that are laying around Hobbiton that have come from the “oak” are available to take as souvenirs. Danny, our guide, said that each leaf probably cost the studio about ten dollars. (I don’t know if this is true or not.)

We had a great time walking around the Hobbit town, peering into windows, looking through doorways, squeezing into a Hobbit hole, and listening to which scenes were shot where, and how they arranged Gandalf’s arrival and the streets his wagon traversed. They were not connected, but shot at different locations around the set, but nevertheless, looked continuous in The Fellowship of the Ring. Both Cindy and I agreed, this was the best part of our trip to New Zealand and leaves us with a very positive impression of the time we spent here.

New Zealand—Queenstown

The Queenstown area was completely covered with clouds when we flew in. Once the jet got below the level of the clouds, we got our first look around. We were nearly even with the tops of the surrounding mountains before the plane ducked below the layer of clouds.

Once again, the runway was only just long enough. The plane had to use a full reverse of engines and brakes to come to a stop before the end of the runway. We exited down stairs onto the tarmac and walked inside for a short customs check. Once in the lobby, I decided to use the ATM to get some cash in New Zealand currency. No luck, the ATM wouldn’t dispense any funds. We learned two days later, after three calls to our credit union, that our debit card would not work in New Zealand. (Even though originally we were told it would.) Luckily, we were able to get a cash advance on our credit card on our third day in Queenstown.

Our second day, we arranged for a tour of Milford Sound on the southwest coast. The total time for the trip was about twelve hours. Five hours to the sound, an hour for lunch, two hours cruising out to the Tasman Sea, and a four hour return trip. On the way out, we stopped at several scenic spots for photos, while on the way back, we simply drove to get back to Queenstown.

Two days after we took our tour, a heavy snowstorm hit the Milford area and caused an avalanche above the highway, bringing down tons of rock and trees. Some of the boulders are so large, holes will have to be drilled for explosives so they can blow them up and remove them. This could take several days. Some tours were trapped at the sound during the bad weather and may be trapped there until the road is opened. (Two days later and that could have been us!)

Our Milford Sound cruise was quite chilly and somewhat overcast, but the scenery was extremely beautiful. (as you can see from the photos posted on Facebook.) We enjoyed the commentary of Ian McIntosh, our tour guide, as he was knowledgeable about the history, legends, animals, botany, and current affairs of the area.

The following afternoon we took a half day, Lord of the Rings tour around Queenstown. We learned from Ian, the day before, that the third largest industry of New Zealand, after agriculture and tourism, is movie production. They have an abundance of beautiful scenery at a reasonable price, compared to other countries. Not only were many of the scenes of the Lord of the Rings trilogy filmed around the Queenstown area, but also some from The Hobbit, Wolverine, and Narnia. We were able to view a number of the locations where scenes were shot. One scene from Wolverine, which some of you may remember, was filmed on a one way bridge, supposedly in Canada. New Zealand has hundreds of single lane bridges and the roads at either end are marked with arrows designating which side of the road you should return to. You drive on the left in New Zealand, in Canada it’s the right. If you remember the scene, Wolverine moves his truck to the right, but the arrow is plainly visible, directing drivers to the left. The scene is obviously not shot in Canada—a minor blooper.

The one lane bridge leads onto the Paradise Ranch and Sheep Station, a thousand acre spread completely surrounded by a national park. Jim ?, (can't remember his last name.) the owner, charged Peter Jackson, (a native New Zealander from Wellington) three thousand dollars a day to use his ranch to set up and film several scenes from the Lord of the Rings, and later, The Hobbit. Locals from Queenstown, (about 30 percent of the population of 13,000, were movie extras, orcs, and uruchi. Horsemen from all over southern New Zealand formed a group of 250 riders that appeared in many of the scenes of the LOTR. Peter Jackson simply had them digitally duplicated in the larger groups needed. (Next time you watch, see if you can pick out the copies!)

Our whole LOTR tour was wet. It rained the entire afternoon, and clouds hung so low over the mountaintops that some of the locations were practically invisible. The last ford in one of the streams our four-wheel drive was going to cross, was too deep so we were unable to see Chinaman’s Bluff. Our guide, Alana, told of the time after gold was discovered in Arrowton, the next city east from Queenstown, and several Chinese men tricked some white miners into abandoning their claims in Arrowton in favor of some out on the other side of Paradise. They succeeded and moved to Arrowton where they staked valuable claims while the white miners were duped—thus Chinaman’s Bluff. It was a kind of payback for their earlier bad treatment by the white miners.

On the way back, we stopped in the Mount Aspiring National Park, got a look at the tree that inspired some of the ent faces in The Two Towers, walked through the woods where Boromir was shot and Pippin and Merry were captured by the Uruk-hai, and also sampled an edible leaf that was as spicy as a jalapeno. We needed a cool drink to wash the heat our of our mouths! All-in-all, it was an incredible two days of sightseeing and soaking up as much of the culture and history of the area as we could.

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And God will wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.      Revelation 21:4