My NZ: Hobbiton, Matamata, Waikato

I have a confession to make. I have never read The Hobbit (1937) or The Lord of the Rings by J R R Tolkien. Neither have I seen the movies. So I do not know anything about Gandalf, Frodo, Sam, Bilbo Baggins, etc. I guess I am just not such a great fan of the fantasy genre. (Although I have read all of Roald Dahl's, but not any of J K Rowling's). But then when you are in New Zealand, I guess you are already in Middle Earth, so a visit to 'The Shire, home of the Hobbiton movie set where The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies were filmed' is a must.

Rolling hills of  fertile dairy country, Waikato (CNB 2014)

Hobbiton (CNB 2014)

The bucolic setting for The Shire, home of the Hobbits, was found in a 1250 acre sheep and beef farm belonging to the Alexander family and located near Matamata. If initially made of ply and polystyrene in 1999 for TLOR, ten years later for TH trilogy the structures were reconstructed with more permanent materials. By the way I hate that artificial oak tree that overlooks Bag End - it looks so, so ... artificial! But hey, it is part of a movie set after all.

Hey, I could be a Hobbit and live in this hole! (BB 2014)

Our guided tour ends at the Green Dragon Inn of Bywater which we were made to understand, was frequented by Hobbits from the area and the neighbouring settlement of Hobbiton. This fictional pub of Tolkien's Middle Earth is now a working pub with real booze for visitors.

The bridge to the Green Dragon (CNB 2014)

Our guide & colleagues at the Green Dragon (CNB 2014)

Maybe, just maybe, after this rather interesting visit to Hobbiton and the Green Dragon, I might start reading Tolkien's books (because they are, after all, classics in children's literature) and watch the Peter Jackson movies.