Day 12: Hobbits and Green Dragons

Our focus of action for today was the main focus of our whole trip - a visit to Matamata to do a tour of the Hobbiton Movie set, located on a private farm 15 minutes drive out of that town.

We left our Rotorua motel early for the hour drive to Matamata. The rain accompanied us for most of the journey and came pouring down just before we arrived. Fortunately it seemed to stop once we had got there, whilst we stopped for coffee, toilet and to take photos of the Hobbiton inspired visitor information centre located there.

We then drove to The Shire's Rest which is located just outside the farm gates to board the 10.10am tour bus that would drive us into the farm to get to Hobbiton.

It was amazing how they have nestled the movie sets into the hills on the farm, recreating only in 2023 two actual Hobbit holes that you can walk through.

The tour also included another brief deluge of rain (that left us all damp and with muddy shoes), a drink at the Green Dragon Inn, followed by another all you can eat buffet lunch and then another bus trip back to The Shire's Rest so we could spend an exorbitant amount of money at the gift shop on The Hobbit map and a mini figure of the Witch King of Angmar.

Once our wallet was that little bit lighter, we jumped back in the car and drove 90 minutes south-ish to get to Lake Taupo, our next stop for two nights.Read more