We are collected by a mini bus and driven to MataMata by a big Maori man telling us all about the history of the area and then went on to tell us about farming over the years. He does eventually start to tell us about Lord of the rings, the hobbit and what they did where as we near the shires rest.
The Shires rest looks like a pub but is just the staging point before you are taken to the village, the coach passes by the areas where the equipment and people stayed while filming was taking place before turning the corner and Hobbition is in sight.
The tour is just over an hour however the guide is far less enthusiastic about the whole thing than you might expect, the village looks amazing, just how it does on screen. The main thing that does not look quite the same is the doors, some are large and others are small depending on if they need people to look big next to them, even the vegetables are out of size.
Unfortunately we saw no Hobbits, Orks, Elves or Wizards although our guide did tell us that quite often people do come in costume although not always from LOTR. We are told a little more about the village and up by Bag End they let us know that to film the sunset scene it was done at sunrise as the village faces a different way to the books, also for the Hobbit movie the tree above is entirely metal as they needed it to be the same as in LOTR but looking 60 years younger, this youthing effect we are told they have done to some of the village although nothing needs to look much different in the two movies.
We are dragged away but not before I film as much as possible from entering the village as Gandalf does to the green dragon pub from over the lake.
A quick look in the souvenir shop but before we even think of buying anything they come rushing in saying that the bus will have to leave early and we had to leave right now, we weren't massively impressed by the organisation of the whole thing however this is the only way to see Hobbition without doing some serious sneaking.
