Here it is. LOTR nerd paradise. I've been looking forward to going to Hobbiton ever since there was a whisper about a possibility of us moving to NZ. Probably even before that in my subconscious. I wanted to go with my childhood friend, Anna, because we went to the midnight showings of LOTR together and she's my fantasy novel partner-in-crime, but as she just had a baby a couple of weeks ago, the possibility of her making it to NZ were on the slim side. Someone really needs to invent hairy Hobbit feet socks for babies. You'd make a fortune. You were with me in spirit, Love.
If I couldn't go with Anna, at least I could go with another avid fan. Our friends Ryan and Kelly were here for their honeymoon and met us down in Hobbiton for the tour. Yay! It was so nice to see some friendly faces from Denver. We miss you guys! Wish they could have visited with us for longer than a day, but they were busy bees on their trip and didn't have time to spare.
The tour was about two hours long. We had to take a bus a short ways to get to Hobbiton and the tourguide was asking along the way who had seen the movies and/or read the books. He pointed out the place where Gandalf first meets Frodo as he's coming into town for Bilbo's birthday. He asked if anyone remembers what Frodo says to Gandalf as he's standing with his arms crossed. I'm the one in the back of the bus yelling, "You're late!" Yep, I was that person and proud of it. I'll be that person on the tour who shouts stuff. Two hours of LOTR nerdy bliss. We enter.
I know we look cold, but that was our "squealing with excitement" face.
The chimney with the smoke is Sam and Rosie's house. They have a smoke machine now, but back at the filming they burned beeswax because it made a 'more realistic smoke'.
Woot woot! Bagend!!
They hired someone to walk from a hobbit house to the laundry line everyday, several times a day for the weeks before filming so there was a path cut in the grass to make it look realistic. Peter Jackson thought of everything.
Bagend
Again, excitement, not cold.
Yay Party Tree!
Baker's house. The only pose Lance would allow me the whole tour.
Green Dragon
They had doors in various scales for various-sized actors. Bigger doors made Hobbit actors look smaller.
The frogs in the pond were so lour during filming that they had to hire people to capture all the frogs and relocate them.
My little hobbit
Hobbit-sized honey
There are supposed to be apple trees in Hobbiton, but real apple trees wouldn't be in the correct proportion with the Hobbit actors, so he had plum trees planted, all their leaves and fruit picked off, and apple tree leaves and fruit wired on. Crazy. Damn I love a good factoid.
Working garden, used in the Green Dragon
The tree above Bagend (top right) was originally a real tree. For the LOTR movies Peter Jackson found one he really loved and had it chopped into pieces, brought back to the set and wired back together. Obviously it died. When The Hobbit movies were filmed, a new fake tree was built since the movies occured 50 years prior and the tree needed to age backwards.
Sam and Rosie's house
Under the Party Tree
Our men skipping around the maypole. Please watch the video to see their skipping skills. Please.
"Greeeeeeen Dragon is the place to be. Wide open and a fancy free!" Think Green Acres theme song.
In the scene where Bilbo and Gandalf are blowing smoke rings on the hill outside Bagend, the sun is setting. But Bagend actually faces to the east, so they filmed them sitting there during sunrise and played it backwards.
"What'll it be?" This was accompanied by a slapping of the bar counter. It was a very authentic barkeep impression, trust me.
"It comes in PINTS?!"
Ahh, Hobbiton. What an enjoyable day. I really did have a blast. Thanks for doing it with us, Ryan and Kelly!