I’ve read all the books and seen all the movies, but I’m ashamed that until I got to New Zealand, I did not know that this was the land where most of the LoTR filming took place. Although it was not on our original itinerary, by the time we got close to Matamata, our close knit tour group had long revealed their nerdy true selves and decided we must make the pilgrimage to Hobbiton.
I had originally rejected the idea of visiting the movie set, thinking it would be on the level of Universal Studios, and all the fakeness would ruin the image of the serene Hobbit village in my mind. I was so glad to be proven wrong. We arrived to find hobbit holes hidden around every crevice of the rolling green hills, with intricate doors, mail boxes, benches… Everything was so realistic that we half expected a hobbit to come out to greet us any time.
At the end of the day, we stopped by the Green Dragon Inn, where we enjoyed a nice drink by the fireplace, and where I found this perfect window for one of many many tourist photos of the day.
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