But there were tickets for today! Today, at 4.45 pm and it was now 1.30 pm and we were knackered already. It was 30ºC and blazing sunshine, we would be mad, insane to even contemplate it.
It’s not like we had planned the whole New Zealand trip around small imaginary hairy footed creatures or as a pilgrimage to Sean Bean or Orlando Bloom or as a homage to Peter Jackson.
Besides, we are grown ups, far too serious and we must look after ourselves.
You turn a corner and there it is, just as it was in the films but even more picturesque.
Well, that’s no strictly true. You wind for miles out into the countryside, park in the car park and wait for your slot. Then a bus arrives and transports you onto a working farm with sheep and cattle everywhere. They drop you behind a hedge, you meet Sarah, your guide, you turn a corner …
The set was completely destroyed after Lord Of The Rings and then 11 years later Peter Jackson rebuilt it for The Hobbit. Russell Alexander, the farmer and owner of the land persuaded Jackson to make the set more permanent this time and they rebuilt the whole thing. It took them two years and they filmed there for only twelve days.
The attention to detail is astonishing and the mix of the real (the plants, the fences, the paths, the wooden house fronts) and the faux (the prop food, the steel and plastic tree) is immaculate.
Sarah, our guide, said the strangest thing. Do you know that around one third of the people visiting Hobbiton have not seen the films. What must they make of it all? Would they even begin to believe in Tolkien”s world where nasty, evil creatures approach out of thick, sulphurous fog to drag you away have their wicked way with you?
To Middle Earth and Beyond 
Amazing! Really fascinating to see it all. Any hobbits at home? Now you can have that rest!