Dreamy Hobbiton: visiting the Hobbiton Movie Set in New Zealand

Round, colourful doors, smoking chimneys, gardens full of vegetables and a little bridge over a stream to the Green Dragon Inn. When I first walked into Hobbiton, I felt as if I'd stepped into the film. Literally: the Hobbiton Movie Set near Matamata is the real film set from The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, and you can walk through it.

How Hobbiton came about

When Peter Jackson was looking for a place for the Shire, he flew over the Alexander family farm near Matamata and knew at once that this was it. Green hills, a big tree above a pond, and no roads or wires on the horizon. For The Lord of the Rings they built a temporary set, but for The Hobbit (2011) they rebuilt the whole village from durable materials, and that's what you can visit today.

How the tour works

You can only visit Hobbiton with a guide. From the visitor centre a bus takes you across the farm to the start of the path. The tour takes about two hours and leads past 44 hobbit holes, through Bag End (Bilbo and Frodo's home) to the Green Dragon Inn, where you get a beer or ginger beer in a ceramic tankard.

The guide tells stories from the filming: for example, that the tree above Bag End is artificial and every one of its leaves was attached by hand, or that the hobbit holes come in different sizes to make the actors look smaller or bigger.

Photography tips

• A morning or late-afternoon tour has the nicest light and fewer people.
• A wide-angle lens for whole scenes, a portrait lens for details of doors and gardens.
• Wait until the group moves on: guides usually give you time to take photos at the main spots.
• The details are magical: tiny washing on a line, cheeses in a window, tools by a door.

Is it worth it?

The ticket isn't cheap, and it's a tourist attraction with hundreds of people a day. But for a Tolkien fan it's a dream come true. The set is incredibly detailed and the landscape around really is like the Shire. I left grinning from ear to ear.

More film locations

Hobbiton is just the beginning. In New Zealand you'll find Mordor in Tongariro National Park, Rivendell near Wellington and Edoras on the South Island. The full overview is in in the footsteps of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. Hobbiton combines well with Rotorua (an hour's drive) and the North Island waterfalls.

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