Everyone who knows of hobbits, knows about the height factor. The average sized human is going to tower over any building for halflings. But when I call Hobbiton “the perfect size for your Inner Child,” I’m not just talking about scale.
This place is a wonderland for your inner child to be set free.
The Hobbiton Movie Set is in Matamata. Specifically within the vast sheep fields inside Matamata. Your shuttle bus takes you from parking and souvenirs at The Shire’s Rest, where all tours commence, and moves you so far afield, you can’t see modern civilization anymore. No stringing telephone wires, no roads or cars, no tops of buildings poking over the horizon. Just rolling green stretching as far as the eye can see.
You’re finally there. That place you held in your mind’s eye as you turned pages by flashlight long after bedtime. The land you beheld through a screen, so complete and full it seemed a simple matter of finding it on a map and buying a ticket. And then you buy that ticket and you make that journey and you’re there. You’re truly there.
You have reached The Shire.
Just as Tolkien intended, this place overflows with love. Technically, you can’t roam unguided, but you can check your worldly cares at the threshold and let your inner child run free. Photos are not only encouraged, the tour guide offers to take as many as you like. Each pause along the path is always long enough for each member of the group to capture that perfect shot.
Weird, odd, and “too much” do not exist here. We are fantastical fanatics together, reveling in this small part of the world made for us.
And that’s not an exaggeration! There were no plans to make the Hobbiton Set a permanent exhibit. When they were in the midst of filming, it was a popular tourist site. But as with all LotR film sites in New Zealand, they had agreed to leave as little trace afterwards as possible. Demolition was scheduled, but a chance storm delayed it. Then delayed it again. And in the meantime, a steady trickle of fans still made pilgrimage to a film site that was naught but bare bones.
It was muddy, it was a ruin, but it was still Middle Earth.
The landowners and tourism boards saw an opportunity in those determined fans. When a contract to make The Hobbit movies was signed, they decided that since they had to rebuild the set anyway, why not build with permanent materials? They use the same blueprints, but instead of temporary styrofoam and cardboard, they’re concrete, brick, and wood. The grounds are expanded too, with regularly employed gardeners, making the area not a set but The Shire.
Depending on what tour package you book, you’re in for a variety of delights. Some include a complimentary drink at The Green Dragon (which they really burned down to film Frodo’s vision in the Mirror of Galadriel, then rebuilt). Or you could even have a real Hobbit-sized feast! Which translates to a lot of food, no matter the size of your stomach.
I didn’t have time for the feast on my journey, but I did have time enough to achieve a life-long dream. Sit by a roaring fire, open a book, and read about a long-expected party while those same tents and decorations are arranged beneath The Party Tree, right outside the window.
Check out their current tour packages and prices here:
Kaitlin’s Adventure in New Zealand was from June 8-25, 2017