Saturday 28 February 2026
Back in the earliest years of the 21st Century we headed to the theater with our offspring every time one of Lord of the Rings Trilogy movies was released and we like so many others, dreamt of seeing the New Zealand landscapes where Peter Jackson filmed the cinematic depictions of J.R.R. Tolkien’s tales of Middle Earth. Now today, with Queen Mary 2 calling at the Port of Tauranga, New Zealand, decades later we have realized the dream of visiting Hobbiton. Set in the middle of the Alexander family sheep and dairy farm, still operating and managed by Duncan Alexander, The Shire was a temporary set for the Lord of the Rings movies, but when Jackson returned to film The Hobbit movies, the Alexander family requested a permanent build which took two years to construct. These days it’s a mecca for Tolkien fans worldwide. When we realized that our itinerary aboard QM2 included the port of Tauranga, New Zealand we immediately booked a Hobbiton Movie Set Tour with Shore Trips and Tours through Viator. That had us on our way by 9 AM this morning two hours earlier than the offered by the ship. On the ride from Tauranga to Matamata we learned the story of how Peter Jackson came to choose the Alexander farm as the site of Hobbiton and why The Shire still exists there today. Then once we were on a green Hobbiton bus on the way to the movie set, we learned more as Peter Jackson and Russell Alexander, who manages the operation of Hobbiton, welcomed us in a short film. Moments later we rounded a corner and the hometown of Bilbo Baggins appeared before our very eyes. For the next two and a half hours we followed Anna as she led us along footpaths through The Shire pointing out features of the hobbit holes, describing aspects of life in The Shire, or describing some of the challenges of recreating this portion of Middle Earth. Most of the Hobbit homes are finished only on the outside with delightful details, gardens, chimneys, and clotheslines. Although Bag End, Bilbo’s home, is large enough inside to hold forty people, its interior is unfinished. The tree atop it is artificial and its 36,000 leaves are all hand wired on. At one point filming had to be delayed because the leaves had become sun bleached and each of those leaves had to be repainted by hand. Quite recently, since late 2023 there are now two fully furnished hobbit holes into which visitors are invited to enter and make themselves at home. The furnishings are Hobbit sized but fortunately the dwellings’ ceilings are higher than Hobbits would require. From there we made our way to the Party Field where Bilbo threw a party to celebrate his Eleventy- First Birthday, the filming of which took four days and three nights while the hundreds of extras including Peter Jackson’s children were offered as much 1% stout for the adults and candy for the children as they wanted and Bilbo’s stories kept changing to keep the interest of the young ones. We enjoyed a refreshment stop at the Green Dragon Inn where the two of us enjoyed our complementary beverages while seated in arm chairs in front of the fireplace before making our way back to Shire’s Rest and the coach ride back to port. It has been a glorious day being transported to the mythical locale where all the Hobbit stories began. We are so very taken by the incredible attention to detail in the making of the movies and in the maintenance of the magic of this place!
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