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New Zealand, Hobbiton – A Glimpse of Famous Fantasy Trilogy's Behind the Scenes – VIDEO
Published: 13.2.2018
Both the Hobbit and the Lord of the Ring trilogies were shot on New Zealand. The movies inspired many tourists to come to the country. Many fly in solely to see the film sets. The most famous one is Hobbiton. Today, we make a short trip to introduce it to you.
When director Peter Jackson was choosing the location for the shooting of the Shire he encountered a farm about 10 kilometers from Matamata village, right in the heart of New Zealand's northern island. Local green hills, water, and huge pines greatly corresponded to what Tolkien described in his books.
The entire Lord of the Rings village was built so it would be easily to demolish and clear space for sheep and cows. Yet the great success of the trilogy lured in many fans who were eager to take a look at the set. The owners of the farm, filmmakers and the government of New Zealand closed an agreement to built the entire village from ground up, for real. And it paid off. Now thousands of visitors visit it every day.
What will you see in Hobbiton? There are 44 Hobbit houses with their typical round doors. Several exceptions aside, nothing is behind the door. Still you will feel as if in the true Middle-Earth. A group of people maintain gardens. Everything is so well arranged that the village seems to be living and breathing. Prepare to see the house of Bilbo or the place where his birthday celebration took place.
At the end of the tour your get to the mill and then cross a stone bridge which gets you to the Green Dragon Inn. There you can take a look inside and as it is a real inn you can choose one of several local beers (included in the admission). A Hobbit brewery makes beer solely for the Green Dragon.
I have hesitated for a long time if to pay quite expensive admission or to simply omit Hobbiton. Now I am sure it was money well spent.
Nelson town is one of the oldest in New Zealand. It was the very first town on New Zealand's southern island. Sights, however, are not what is interesting the most about this town. It is the place with most sunny days on the Southern Island. Moreover, it is surrounded by amazing nature. Among the most popular activities are trips to the Abel Tasman national park.
At the heart of the Southern Alps, on the shore of Wakatipu lake, there is the town Queenstown. It is home to summer and winter sports, an ideal base to set out to treks.
Deep fjords, beautiful mountain vallesy, waterfalls, glacier lakes, and wild nature. Fiordland could be shortly described by that. You can find it in the south of New Zealand. There, two popular tourist destinations are situated there – Milford Sound and Doubtful Sound.
The largest city of New Zealand's southern island was badly damaged during heavy earthquakes between 2010 and 2012. Still, it has been developing quite fast since. It is worth visiting to see, how a restoration of such a place might look like.
In the last parts of our series we saw several places in the northern island of New Zealand. Now we start exploring the southern one which is larger, wilder, and there are more mountains. It is dominated by the summits of the South Alps especially Mt. Cook, the highest mountain in the country – 3 754 m.
On New Zealand's northern islend, there is a narrow land projection adorned by beautiful cliffs, sand dunes, and the longest beach in the country. It is also one of the most sought after points of interest for tourists. Let's go there and spend there a while.
Are you traveling to the north of New Zealand? Be sure to stop behind Whangarei town with 16 kilometer wide Bay of Island. Nature there is great as well as waterfalls and trips to see dolphins, whales and amazing beaches.
In the very heart of New Zealand's norhter island there is the most active volcanic area in the country. There is high geothermal activity around hte town of Rotorua. You may smell sulphur all around and sulphur steam springs out of the ground on many places. Also you may see bubbling mud lakes, hot springs, and other interesting natural phenomena.
New Zealand is fascinating for its diversity and extremes. Tongariro national park is no exception. Beautiful, pleasant landscape surrounding Taupo lake changes to volcanic desert. Tongariro Alpine Crossing is a 20 kilometer trail which is one of the most popular in the country. Infoglobe brings you closer to this amazing experience.
If you are from Europe, New Zealand is one of the most remote places in the world. In the very distant past New Zealand separated from other continents. Today it is situated alone 2000 kilometers from the closest continent – Australia. In the following weeks we are going to discover and explore many beautiful places in Zealand. Let's start by introducing you to the lesser and more "civilized" part of the country. The Northern Island.
A mere hour and half southeast from Auckland, there is the paradise for people who love nature and the place which is, according to me, one of the most beautiful of norhtern island's – the Coromandel Peninsula. The peninsula is largely covered with tropical rain forest and beautiful mountains. Let's see it for ourselves.
Have you ever heard of gannets? These blue-eyed sea birds who come unbelievably fast head down right into the ocean to catch their food. I have been always fascinated by them when I saw them in nature documentaries. I managed to get a close look at them on Cape Kidnappers, New Zealand.
It was my dream for since ever I wanted to visit New Zealand. It was like a magnet and after all those years I finally fulfilled my dream. So I bought a ticket, planned a route, said good bye and set out for real adventure!
The captain of a ship just wrote me from the Bay of Island. I had to hurry and get to Wellington as fast as possible. The road was supposed to take me about two days however, I managed to hitchhike to Picton in a day. So I get to the captain a day earlier. He took me from the south of the Northern Island up to Bay of Island where we spent a nice week on a boat.