We got up on a sunny Saturday in Rotorua, grabbed a quick continental breakfast at the hotel, and made the one hour backtracking drive to the Hobbiton Movie set for our scheduled tour. This was a big reason we wanted to come to this part of the North Island and Kaitlin had been looking forward to it all trip.
We parked and waited a bit before boarding the bus for a short ride through the farmland into the set. Peter Jackson and his crew discovered the Anderson Farm in 1998 via helicopter while searching for filming locations. They constructed a temporary version of Hobbiton (with the help of the New Zealand army!) for the Lord of the Rings films and it was torn down afterwards. When Jackson came back in 2012 for the Hobbit trilogy Anderson negotiated a deal to construct a permanent set and start up the tour business. Smart move!
The only way to visit the set is via a guided tour, so our guide led us through Hobbiton while providing many interesting facts about the set and production. There are 44 hobbit homes on the set, all styled to a particular profession. They vary in scale, to assist in the forced perspectived used in the filming - some are very small, to be used next to Gandalf, and some are large to be used next to all of the hobbits.
At the top of the hill is the titular Bag End, home of Bilbo Baggins. The tree on top of Bag End is the only fake tree on the property, with over 200,000 leaves painted and attached to the limbs.
Down the hill from the homes we cross the bridge and end up at the Green Dragon Inn for a glass of beer. The only thatched roof on the set, they flew a thatcher all the way from England for the construction.
The set tour was a marvelous experience and highly recommended for anyone who has even a passing interest in the LOTR or Hobbit movies.
After driving back to Rotorua we relaxed for a bit and then set out on a walk around downtown and through the geothermal park. Rotorua is in an enormous crater, with hot springs and geothermal activity bubbling up all over town. There are many paid attractions to see the activity, but Kuirau park just outside of downtown is free.
After wandering through the park we headed back around the lakeside to downtown Rotorua. It’s an… odd place. I think we caught it on a sleepy Saturday afternoon (maybe a holiday?) but the entirety of downtown was lifeless and felt about 20 years out of place. Quite a contrast to the vibrant, busy mid-week mountain town of Queenstown we had just came from.
Tomorrow in Rotorua we have a couple of scheduled activities: A high ropes walk in the Redwoods and a Polynesian spa massage.