Bag End

At the top of the set, overlooking the rest of the village is Bag End, home of course to Bilbo Baggins! I was the first up to here so managed to get a few videos and photos whilst it was relatively quiet.

The tree atop the Hobbit hole is completely fake, and Sir Peter Jackson pulled in a shed load of students to paint the thousands of leaves in the days before filming began as he decided he didn't like the colour.

Also, Ian Holm who played the older Bilbo Baggins never actually stepped foot in New Zealand once due to a medical condition. All of his parts of the films were filmed on sets in the UK.Read more