Jared Lee - Photo Album - Hobbiton

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On my way from Rotorua to Auckland, I swung by the small town of Matamata so that I could take a tour to the Alexander Farm, the site of Hobbiton from "Lord of the Rings"
December 17, 2004

01-WelcomeToHobbiton On Friday, December 17, 2004, on my way from Rotorua to Auckland, I stopped by the town of Matamata in the beautiful Waikato Region ... in Matamata I booked a tour to go see Hobbiton, which is situated on private farmland

02-AlexanderFarm The Alexander Family Farm, site of Hobbiton and a good chunk of the Shire

53-Fence For whatever reason, JAlbum refused to put this slide in the right place, so this is a preview of a fence in front of Bag End

03-Hobbiton Real sheep grazing on the real-life Hobbiton

04-Jared-Hobbiton Hobbiton is the only film site for LOTR that's still partially intact

05-Pictureboard There were a smattering of picture boards like this one all along the tour route, illustrating what everything looked like during filming

06-TourBus The tour bus

07-Sheep Grazing sheep

08-PartyTree-Pond The Party Tree, on the left side of the pond ... when Peter Jackson saw this place, he knew he absolutely had to use it as Hobbiton, because it almost exactly matched Tolkien's description of it

09-AlexanderFarm Alexander Farm ... the Alexander brothers have a really good relationship with New Line Cinema, which is how they were able to get permission from New Line to spare some of the hobbit holes and allow tour groups to come through

10-GandalfsArrival Across the way is the location of the path on which Gandalf arrived in Hobbiton, and Frodo uttered,

11-GandalfsArrival Gandalf's arrival

12-FireworksCart On the path beneath this tree is where some fireworks from Gandalf's cart exploded for the group of hobbit children

13-GrumpyMan-Fireworks On the right side of this path is the site of the hobbit hole and garden where the old hobbit was working and smiling at the children as Gandalf's fireworks were going off, until his wife came out and scowled at him, prompting him to turn grumpy very suddenly

14-Hobbiton Hobbiton

15-Jared-Hobbiton I'm really and truly at Hobbiton!

16-Pictureboard Pictureboard

17-Pictureboard Pictureboard, with how it looks now

18-HobbitHoles-BagshotRow Bagshot Row

19-PlumTree Plum tree, which was used as an apple tree in the film

20-PartyTree Party Tree

21-PartyTree Party Tree ... even the tree fit Tolkien's description of the Party Tree, which meant that Peter Jackson didn't need to haul in a different tree or doctor the existing one at all

22-PartyField Party Field

23-PartyTreeField Party Tree & Party Field

24-Hobbiton Hobbiton ... 17 of the original 34 hobbit holes still exist ... after filming of FOTR was complete, New Line started removing the ones further down the hill, but then rainy winter set in and forced them to halt deconstruction ... over the winter neighbours convinced the Alexander brothers to ask New Line about leaving the rest of the hobbit holes intact and starting up a tour

25-BilbosFarewell The space beneath the Party Tree where Bilbo said his farewell to his party guests

26-PartyTree Party Tree

27-Pond-Market The market was located on the other side of this pond

28-Bridge-Mill The mill was also located across the pond, and the

29-Pictureboard Pictureboard

30-Bridge-Mill Site of the bridge and mill

31-Photoboard Photoboard

32-AlexanderFarm Alexander Farm

33-Hobbiton Hobbiton

34-Pond Pond

35-WheatFields In the distance is the field that was used as the wheat field where Sam told Frodo,

36-Hobbiton Hobbiton

37-SamsHome Samwise Gamgee's home, the last hobbit hole that New Line removed ... the Alexanders and New Line are trying to strike a deal to rebuild Sam's home, since it's the site of the film's final scene in ROTK

38-HobbitHole A typical hobbit hole, just a facing on a hill

39-Photoboard Photoboard of Bag End

40-BagEnd Inside the real Bag End ... the interior shots of Bag End were filmed on a sound stage in Wellington, but the real Bag End was actually dug into the hill, and was an unfurnished/dirt/chicken wire square that had enough area to fit about 20 people or so ... and yes, the circular doors were really only about four and a half or five feet tall

41-InsideBagEnd Inside Bag End

42-InsideBagEnd Inside Bag End

43-Jared-BagEnd I got to go inside Bag End!

44-BagEnd Bag End, the only hobbit hole that people are able to inside ... all the other hobbit holes are just facings on a hill

45-PartyTree The Party Tree and the pond

46-OakLeaves Some of the oak leaves that were used to make/reassemble the oak tree that was physically inserted above Bag End

47-BagEndReconstructedOakTree The real Bag End didn't have a huge oak tree above it like Tolkien described, which was about the only shortcoming of this place as a site for Hobbiton, so Peter Jackson got around that by purchasing a large, living oak tree from a neighbouring farm, meticulously cutting it up and labeling it, so that it could be put back together with screws and nails at its new temporary home above Bag End ... these are pieces of the lumber from that oak tree

48-ReconstructedOakTree Parts of the reconstructed oak tree

49-AboveBagEnd Standing above Bag End

50-Hobbiton Hobbiton

51-Hobbiton Hobbiton

52-Hobbiton Hobbiton

54-WindingPath The winding path leading down from Bag End

55-BagshotRow Bagshot Row

56-BagshotRow Bagshot Row

57-Pond A little pond, that was made quite a bit larger during filming

58-BagshotRow Bagshot Row

59-Jared-BagshotRow Me, with Bagshot Row in the background

60-BagshotRow Bagshot Row

61-Hobbiton Hobbiton

62-FireworksTree Fireworks tree

63-ArchedBranch A really cool arched branch, that actually dives underground for a bit and is sprouting new growth akin to a new, young tree

64-Hobbiton Hobbiton

65-GravelPath Gravel path

66-Road The road going through the Alexander's land to Hobbiton

67-FireworksTree Fireworks tree

68-AlexanderSheep Alexander sheep

69-AlexanderSheep Alexander sheep

70-Matamata Matamata wants to make sure that passersby know that it was the site of Hobbiton

71-RoundaboutHobbiton Matamata

72-RoundaboutSign A typical New Zealand road sign