Written by: Vicky Philpott

On my recent trip to New Zealand with Kiwi Experience I went to visit Hobbiton where the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit were filmed. I’m not the world’s biggest fan, I dabble if anything, but I still really enjoyed the experience and loved having my photo taken in a hobbit hole.



The site belongs to the Alexander family and is still a working sheep farm, although with a much higher income than most. In 1998 Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson was up in his helicopter over New Zealand trying to find the perfect location for the Shire. He found this particular field, complete with hills, a clearing and a huge tree. It was perfect. He located the owner’s house and went and knocked to find out if he could use it in his film. Apparently the owner was watching rugby and told Mr Jackson to go away, in naughtier words than that.

Cut a long story short and a few years and a lot of money and man power later Hobbiton was born. The site covers 12 acres, there are 44 hobbit holes, the party tree had thousands of leaves sewn on (?) and the Green Dragon pub is now an exclusive brewery serving ales, cider and non alcoholic ginger beer from barrels.

Hobbiton was awesome, whether you’ve seen the films / read the book, or not. Here are 35 reasons why.

































































