Hobbiton Village, which has made New Zealand famous around the world, is one of the country’s top attractions. Thousands of Tolkien fans come to this place, located near the town of Matamata, every year. The Lord of the Rings trilogy made famous once the most ordinary New Zealand farm. Yes, yes, relatively recently the locals had no idea that soon they would receive crowds of travelers and tell them about their life. However, an acquaintance with the director turned everything upside down. The Alexander family became infected with the idea of Hobbiton and agreed to build an unusual village.
It all started when director and producer Peter Jackson was traveling around the North Island in New Zealand. He was looking for a suitable location to film his new project. While flying around the area in a helicopter, Peter spotted a farm called Alexander. The owners of the farm – the Alexander brothers – lived and worked here since 1978. It is worth noting that at that time they owned 1250 sheep and 300 Angus bulls. The farm brought a good income, and the Alexanders were not going to change anything in their lives. However, an acquaintance with the director turned everything upside down. The family became infected with the idea of creating Hobbiton and agreed to build an unusual village. Work began on the reconstruction of the sheep farm in 1999. It took almost a year to build the sets! In total, more than 400 people worked here.
Peter Jackson didn’t want to build the sets out of cardboard. Absolutely everything in Hobbiton was built for real. The New Zealand Army was even involved in the work. For example, for example, the road to Hobbiton 1.5 kilometers long was built by soldiers. The houses of hobbits are made of wood and plastic. Moreover, beautiful gardens were laid out all over the area and a living barberry fence was made.
As a result, 44 hobbit houses, a mill, an arched bridge, the Green Dragon pub and even winding streets appeared on the site of the former sheep farm. At the end of the filming process, Hobbiton was not dismantled, but left as it was. The owners of the farm are so imbued with Tolkien’s ideas that they decided to preserve an unusual fairy-tale village for tourists. True, on the condition that the guides will free them from the constant questioning of visitors.
In Hobbiton there are daily excursions. It is possible to see absolutely all local attractions. The only thing – you can not get inside the hobbit houses. But to have a snack and a beer in the famous inn “Green Dragon” is easy. Don’t forget to bring your camera, Hobbiton is a great place for fun photo shoots. By the way, all tourists are given food for hand sheep. In addition, here it is allowed to feed milk to very young lambs.
