Friday February 26th
We had a busy day planned, and the first job was to book a place for the night; our Top 10 receptionist advised us there were two options in Rotorua, one in the town and one on the Blue Lake - you can probably guess which one we chose! Before that, however, we took an early walk up to the Waitomo Glowworm Caves. We got there before they opened so wandered down to the i-Site and booked onto the 9am tour before walking back. We had to wait for our group of 30-odd to gather and then went into the cave.
Our guide was a lovely Maori lady, one of many working on the site who was descended from the Maori Chief Tane Tinorau who led the original exploration of the cave system. She told us about the history and geology of the area and then took us down into the lovely areas of stalactites, stalagmites, the 'Cathedral', and then a section which is kept dark until visitors arrive. There we had our first glimpse of the lovely glowworms (no photos, of course, to protect them from the inevitable flashes). Our guide explained the life-cycle and we were able to see the sticky threads these larvae leave out to catch the insects attracted to their glow. We then got divided into 2 groups to finish the journey through the cave by boat, with a spectacular ceiling full of glowworms. Although we were meant to stay quiet, in addition to not being allowed to use cameras, I had an awkward coughing fit while awaiting the boat.
The caves were impressive and the visitor centre was quite stunning, reminding me of The Eden Project in some respects, and we stopped for a quick flat white (and to buy a lovely glow-in-the-dark keyring) before heading off for the main business of the day - our trip to Matamata.
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| Waitomo's coffee-shop attracts a scruffy individual. |
For those not in the know, Matamata is the site of the Hobbiton Movie set.
I can't explain the thrill of being in Hobbiton, but Dave and I were equally delighted with the low-key, relaxed vibe of the whole affair. On the road from Cambridge there were no brown tourist signs until about 3km out. The whole area was lush green rolling hills, the perfect Middle Earth location.
The visitor centre was simple, and made up of a ticket office, shop, café (Shire's Rest), loos and a large car-park. No glitz or glamour, no pretension, no idiots in costumes or hype of any kind, just a feeling from the place and staff that "we're here and are thrilled you've made the effort to come, this is what we have...".
Our tickets were courtesy of John and Lois' Christmas gift, and we picked them up for our pre-booked tour about an hour early. We could have moved our tour time forward, but decided to reflect the laid-back atmosphere and relaxed in the Shire's Rest and had some lunch (Dave had the first taste of NZ lamb). We then waited in the small shelter for our bus. The tours are organised so that every 15 minutes a bus pulls up and a group boards with their guide. They drive you through the farmland on which the Hobbiton movie-set is built, and start telling the story. I didn't count the buses, or see more than a couple but ours was called Ori.
The sheep farm chosen for the movie set is thousands of acres, so the set is a tiny part and has little impact on the still-running farm. The original Hobbiton, built as a strictly temporary filmable set for LOTR, was all polystyrene and cardboard and although open to visitors, disintegrated quite quickly. It wasn't until The Hobbit movie was green-lit that it was decided to re-build Hobbiton as a more-or-less permanent feature for post-filming tourism (at the request of the canny farm-owners, who retain and operate it).
On arrival, we start walking round the set with various stops for information and stories, but lots of wandering around at leisure and as much photography as you can cram in (and everyone was very good about taking their shots and moving out of your way). There are bits of scenery from both film trilogies (Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit), bits that never made it onto film but could possibly have been seen in the far distance of a shot so had to be there. Pride of place obviously goes to Bag End, with its fake oak tree*, but there are gardens galore (all with real vegetables and flowers), Sam and Rosie's cottage from the very end of LOTR and, of course (the bit that swung this spot for Peter Jackson as the site for Hobbiton) the massive party tree.
*The original oak tree was pieced together from a perfect specimen which had been cut in pieces and re-built on site; this had been lost over time, and a new fibre-glass one, complete with thousands of individually crafted leaves, had to be built and placed on the new Bag-End. Not only did it have to resemble the original but, because the trilogies were filmed 'back to front', it had to look 60 years younger.
In between these landmarks, there were dozens of immaculately-made hobbit holes with front doors, windows, chimneys and front gardens, as well as washing lines and various other cute accessories - all perfectly hobbit-scaled of course. And pleasingly, no fake hobbit faces in any of the windows!
None of the holes were accessible to us human-sized folk, as all were only ever used for external shots (with all the indoor shoots done in studios in Wellington), but plenty of bits were familiar - they even have the stone-walled bit where Gandalf and Frodo meet at the start of LOTR (actually the same place Bilbo runs through when off on his Hobbit adventure), and the water-mill.
The only part of the set which is 'dressed', and as it is in the films internally, is the Green Dragon pub, which is the end of the tour and at which everyone gets a drink (stout, ale, cider or a non-alcoholic option), and gets to be in the Green Dragon (although I suspect dancing on the tables would be frowned upon).
Our guide was Sharlia, and she was lovely chatty and knowledgeable and didn't rush anyone. She took photos of people who wanted them, especially at the only Hobbit hole which had an opening door; yes, I've had my feet inside a hobbit house! She even managed to get everyone back together after the drink, to reconvene for the bus back.
A magical experience and delightful couple of hours, even on such a hot day.
The shop was next on the agenda, and as well as the obligatory keyring, I might just have got myself a T-shirt and a mug, as well as a couple of gifts. In grateful thanks before we left, I sent the only post-card of the whole trip to John and Lois, stamped from Hobbiton. We then had massive ice-cream sundaes before heading off.
I'm so happy that I've been to Hobbiton; I was so tempted by the books on Hobbit and Lord of the Rings movie locations they had in the shop, but I suspect the temptation to sneak more and more of them into our already crowded itinerary might have proved too great. Such a joy.
(I suspect, from the above, that you might gather just how much of a fan of the Tolkien books, and Jackson films, Jude is. You'll excuse me, then, if I step aside and you'll excuse Jude if she drops in just the odd photo or two - Dave)
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| Aside from one pumpkin (a replica of a previous year's prize specimen) everything you see is real - grown by the on-site gardening team. |
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| Still not scaled up enough to make Dave a convincing Hobbit/Dwarf. |
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| Spot the fake tree. |
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| The view from Bag End, down to The Green Dragon |
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| The Party Tree (yes, this one's real) |
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| Early suggestions for creating realistic-looking Hobbits were less than convincing. |
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| The Green Dragon's green dragon. I must re-(re re re)-watch the films, and see if I can spot this. |
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| Hobbity Booze! |
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| Clearly a fun place for the locals, as well as the tourists. |
Whilst it was on the outskirts of a large town, the area was very peaceful and light levels were low. Dave tried his hand at a bit of astro-photography for the first time. The results were not bad at all, but nothing like what would follow in a couple of weeks' time!
Dave's "Things we learned this time..." section
- The 'Glow Worms' are vicious little buggers, all that prettiness is purely a predatory tool. Luckily I'm a bit on the big side for them, even if they ganged up.
- Jude likes all things Hobbit-y even more than I already realised!
- If walking across a stony beach in bare feet is really really uncomfortable, carrying an expensive camera is NOT going to take your mind off that fact, so much as make you even more aware of it.
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