Hobbiton!

Being Lord of the Rings fans, visiting Hobbiton was pretty much the whole reason we came to visit New Zealand! and it was incredible.
The Shire sets are built on the Alexanders farm in Matamata which was near enough identical to the image Tolkein had from the books of the "rolling green hills", they actually had to rebuild the sets after Lord of the Rings to make the Hobbit! Matamata was around an hours drive from Rotorua and the sets did not disapoint. We were kept in a large tour group and kept moving so was a bit rushed but nonetheless was brilliant seeing the Shire. We walked up, down and around taking it all in wandering the grassy paths of Hobbit life. We saw Bag end at the top of the hill (a synthetic tree sits on their house!), Samwise gamgees house, the water and tree that Bilbo has his eleventy first birthday at and so many other hobbit holes with wonderful round doors and other quirky little things outside of it. We ended our tour with a cider in the green dragon by the roaring fire. A pretty epic day.
Next lotr tour is next week where we are going for the whole day to visit other exterior sets from the movies :D: