The most popular attraction in New Zealand is Hobbiton, the movie set created for The Lord of the Rings movies. As this was our third time in New Zealand, we thought we should go see it. We started looking for tickets to visit it a week or so after arriving in New Zealand and we were surprised to find just one time slot left for the entire month! We quickly booked it and rearranged our itinerary a little bit. Travel Tip: book your Hobbiton tickets well in advance of your trip if you are on a schedule!
Since we had a couple days left before our tour date after hiking in the Tongariro National Park, we decided to head to the west coast surfing town of Raglan, as another tourist we met had mentioned it was one of her favorite towns. We enjoyed some beautiful scenery after leaving the national park area.
On our way to Raglan, we first stopped in the cute town of Te Kuiti. The town promotes itself as the sheep shearing capital of the world and is host to the annual New Zealand National Shearing Championships. We knew nothing about it before and we learned that open class competitive shearing is one of the most physically demanding sport on the planet. Sir David Alexander Fagan – who lives in Te Kuiti – dominated the world shearing stage for four decades. He set world records of shearing 810 lambs in nine hours in 1992 and 702 ewes in nine hours in 1994! Another famous person from Te Kuiti was an All Blacks rugby player named Sir Colin Earl Maids, and he is considered to be the greatest rugby player ever. Maybe we will get to see a rugby match next time in New Zealand…
After Te Kuiti, we got back on the road to the city of Hamilton where we visited the Hamilton Gardens. They have the unique concept of telling the story of civilisations through gardens. 18 different enclosed gardens transport you through diverse cultures and times – from Chinese to Tudor to Ancient Egyptian to even American Modern, including also an Indian Charbagh garden and an Italian Renaissance garden. We had never been to gardens like that, complete with buildings and vignettes. One of them recreated a garden party setting in the early 1900s in Wellington, New Zealand, with a Model T in front of the house. Another one called the Te Parapara garden showed a Māori garden with traditional storehouses, growing Kumara sweet potatoes brought to New Zealand by the first settlers from Polynesia. It was a very interesting experience to go from one garden to the next, not knowing what to expect.
We made it to Raglan by sunset time. Since the next day was overcast and a bit rainy, we spent it doing some trip planning for Japan, working on the blog and cooking. Raglan had black sand beaches and a cute little downtown with lots of giant trees providing shade. Two nights went by quickly and we were off again. On the way out of Raglan, we took a short detour to see Bridal Veil Falls. It was another classic kiwi moment. We took 261 stairs to the bottom, then back up to see the falls from different elevations. It was definitely a long drop!
We were excited to arrive at The Shire for our afternoon tour of Hobbiton. Peter Jackson and his team found their ideal location for the home of the hobbits surveying the land by helicopter. They were looking for lush, rolling hills with a few big trees here and there, and a lake. They found exactly what they were looking for at the Alexander sheep farm. They knocked on the farmer’s door the next day and struck a deal. It was a very big undertaking to transform the site into a movie set – in fact the New Zealand army helped by building a paved road through the farm to accommodate all the vehicles needed.
Sophie and I are not big Lord of the Rings aficionados, but we thoroughly enjoyed our visit. A bus takes you through the hills to the movie set location. There are 44 hobbit homes built into the rolling hills, all unique and different looking – a whole village really. And everything is kept as realistic as possible. There are vegetable gardens, fruit trees, clothes drying out on clotheslines, smoke coming out of the chimneys and evidence of activities going on outside all the homes. The village is blending perfectly into the natural New Zealand landscape and we could see sheep in the pastures around it, since it is still a working farm. It was a mesmerizing place with a very bucolic atmosphere.
The highlight for us was being able to go inside one of the hobbit homes created just for the tours. It was really cute. Everything was at about an 80% scale. The house we visited had a living room, den, kids bedroom, master bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, pantry, etc., all fully furnished as if a family of hobbits was living there, and the attention to detail was unbelievable. Sophie was so enamored that she now wants to be a hobbit! 😉
The tour ended at the Green Dragon Inn where we got to enjoy a drink. I tried their home made stout beer and found it quite pleasing. All in all, we found the tour quite fun and despite being busy with one tour group after another, we didn’t find it overly crowded or gimmicky. Definitely worth a visit if you are in New Zealand!
We only had two more days left in New Zealand after this. We spent them at a lovely campground in nearby Cambridge. The weather was absolutely perfect (low 80s, low humidity and a mild breeze). We cooked up the last of our fish, did laundry, spent time packing, and enjoyed talking with the other campers. A high school boys rowing team was staying at the campground with several of their parents. We had fun chatting with them and getting to know a little more about their experiences living in New Zealand – and also getting recommendations for the next time we visit.
After returning our campervan (which turned out to be the perfect solution for our stay), we spent our final night at a hotel next to the airport. Even the views from our hotel window were amazing – and so typically kiwi. We really enjoyed our third visit to New Zealand and will miss this beautiful country, but it is time to turn our attention to the rest of our travels. We are now on our way to lively Vietnam!
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