Hobbiton, had to be done

I thought I had written this blog, and was very surprised when I could not find it with the others! I had just curated the pictures. Visiting Hobbiton was an almost last minute decision, and because of that the only booking that would work for us was 8.30 am. Very early for me, but Anne booked us into a lovely Bed and Breakfast 500 yds from Hobbiton itself. A short commute.

The Bed and Breakfast, not surprisingly, had DVD’s of the Lord of the Rings, and to refresh our memories of what happened in The Shire we watched the first 40 minutes, from when Gandalf arrives to their escape from the Black Riders who are seeking the One Ring.

It is a very well organized operation, what tourist site isn’t these days, and our guide was from……… Calgary, Wyatt, and no, he, nor anyone else was dressed as a Hobbit. But he was very good.

They have done a great job of maintaining and expanding the original set of The Shire. It was used for The Hobbit as well, and will be used for the upcoming Gollum, if it is made, I heard murmurs that it may not be.

They have paid lots of attention to small details, and I am sure they have a whole villages worth of gardeners on staff, both for the home gardens and the vegetable gardens. There must be a lot of maintenance as well as the props are left out outside the houses, including the clothes on the clothes lines.

Honey

Bread

Cheese

Ale?

Veggies. Who needs a supermarket, take a walk around the village, chat to neighbours and buy your sustenance.

All of the houses you have seen so far are just facades, including Bilbo’s, the picture above, however, there is a couple that can be explored. A relatively new addition I believe. We went into Samwise Gamgee’s, from when he returned to The Shire, married Rosie Cotton.

And had children

And a dog

The bathroom,

But the kitchen is the most important place in a Hobbit house must be the kitchen, breakfast, second breakfast, elevenses, lunch……

The attention to detail is amazing, and the hand pump works

All in all it was great fun. Can you tell from our smiles?

We walked down to the village centre

To the Green Dragon pub for a beverage. The first three he told us about were an Amber Ale, Sackville Apple Cider and Frogmorton Ginger Beer. I thought I would have the Ginger Beer, non-alcoholic, it was only about 10.30 am, until he mentioned the Oat Barton Stout. It was delicious.

Of course the exit was through the gift shop, which we made good use of, and further dented our credit cards, and lunch on the patio was delicious. A great prelude to our next adventure, which I have already written a bit about, The Art Deco Festival in Napier.

Some final shots