The Real Middle Earth

I have returned from the real middle earth, hair slightly still smelling like the sulphurous hot springs of Rotarua and sleep deprived with enough photographs to share with you but not too many because I was trying to see stuff outside of my camera lens. The Hobbtion Movie Set was one of the attractions that I was most excited to see and it was a wonderful little half day adventure that took around 4 hours in total and $110 NZD. It is located in Matamata which is an hour’s drive from the city centre of Rotarua and there’s a big tour bus which takes you from the souvenir gift store to the movie set. Once you start seeing the rolling green hills dotted with sheep, you’re almost there! Our tour guide and bus driver were wonderful and very knowledgeable about the films (they shared a lot of filming secrets) and at the end they shouted us drinks in the Green Dragon Inn. In the future, I would love to go back and do an evening tour because seeing the sun set and tip toeing around the hills with lanterns sounds like the most magical experience! There’s not much else to say so I’ll let the photographs do the talking and I’ll be back with some festive blog posts next Monday!

Advertisement