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Post by obiwan27 on Jan 27, 2013 15:32:05 GMT 12
Hi all. Our Christmas present to ourselves this year was a short trip up to the North Island for a week. You may have guessed a bit of a theme to the places we visited from the thread title. New Years Day highlight: We stayed on a farm stay about 15 minutes up the road. On arrival at Hobbiton we proceeded to check in, having bought our tickets on line at this site: www.hobbitontours.com/Travel to the set was by bus, about 30-40 people in the bus on our tour. Those familiar with the opening Hobbiton sequence of Gandalf's arrival in 'Fellowship of the Ring' will find this view from the bus car park/drop off point familiar: Luckily there were signs with directions ;-) You can see in the distance certain familiar Hobbiton landmarks. In particular the site of Bagend, home of Bilbo Baggins This is the largest hobbit home and had enough room for about 30 people plus the required equipment for filming from the inside. The tree above was artificial and the leaves were all hand painted. Apparrently when Peter Jackson had a look prior to filing starting on LOTR he thought that the colour wasn't right, so they all had to be repainted. More to follow soon.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Jan 29, 2013 16:32:05 GMT 12
Hobbiton is on the same road and only a couple of kms away from my best mate's mum's farm. The farm is where we were partying in their barn bar (the Bar-N) on New Years Eve, and I was still there on NYD, but as you seem to have taken the bus from Matamata you won't have gone past us as the farm is on the Cambridge end of the road (the better end, haha).
As it happens, all three days of Auckland Anniversary Weekend just gone I was there again in the Bar-N for the legendary music festival we run, Barn Jam 2013. Their farm is very similar to the one used in the locations, only in my opinion is actually cooler landscape, and it has real trees!
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Post by obiwan27 on Feb 3, 2013 13:10:16 GMT 12
As well as a tour of the 'village' we made our way to the Green Dragon Inn. Another familiar view to those who have watched the movies It's quite an impressive structure Both outside and in plus the opportunity to sample the locally brewed beer. I had the ginger beer. The Green Dragon Inn is a functions centre, they had a marquee set up behind the inn, so plenty of room to cater for weddings or whatever type of party you might like to have. Or you might just like to party under 'the party tree' This area where the tree is used to a swamp, until the NZ Army engineers drained it, put down loads of soil and turf.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Feb 3, 2013 15:19:06 GMT 12
I thought the Hobbiton beer was from Harringtons, made in Christchurch?
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Post by obiwan27 on Feb 3, 2013 21:13:35 GMT 12
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Post by Deleted on Feb 3, 2013 21:19:14 GMT 12
My brother is a tour guide at hobbiton What was the name of your tour guide? Does Sam ring any bells?
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Post by obiwan27 on Feb 3, 2013 21:22:19 GMT 12
Sorry can't remember her name, so not your brother anyway.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Feb 3, 2013 23:57:01 GMT 12
OK so they have changed the beer there then, as they used to serve Harringtons Sober Thought, which was brewed specifically for the film company to serve on set to workers filming the Hobbit, and continued to be served to tourists. My sister got one of the bottles when she went last year (before the film came out). And my best mate also had a bottle of it there on his pre-opening tour mid last year.
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