I've lived in New Zealand for over 20 years and yet had never visited one of the main tourist attractions - Hobbiton. Not through a lack of wanting to go mind you, just that it's always been horrifically overpriced and clearly aimed at cashed-up overseas tourists and not locals.
So with the mother-in-law visiting us for a week, Hobbiton was on the to-do list, and being a big fan of the Lord of the Rings I was actually quite excited.
Bookings are essential though if not mandatory, I don't think you can just rock up on the day though I'm not certain. We tried booking months ago on their website but everything was fully booked for weeks. We eventually managed to find availability through a Tour Company - I'm guessing they book everything out so they can sell Tours themselves. We booked with Great Sights and it was only available as a day trip departing from the nearby town of Rotorua. The link to this Tour is here. This meant we had to actually be in Rotorua, so we spent a few days down there doing other touristy things.
Heading to Hobbiton
On a brisk Rotorua morning we walked across the City centre to where the Coach would take us on the approximately 1 hour drive out to Hobbiton. The driver was an enigmatic Maori fellow who rambled on the entire way, a lot of which was with an anti-colonial sentiment - leave it out buddy, we just want a nice quiet coach ride without your political opinions please!
The Hobbiton movie set is actually located on an active and working sheep farm, nestled in a very pleasant looking value of rolling hills and trees that you may associate as the landscape of the Shire. The Bus will take you up into the valley past the farmhouse to the first stop called Shire's Rest. This is the place where you would drive and park your car to join your tour if you had booked that way. It contains a Cafe and shop, and you cannot go beyond this point unless on a guide Tour. Besides a brief stop to collect our Guide, we continued on the road down to the movie set itself.
Interestingly the paved road between Shire's Rest and the Movie set was purpose built. Being a farm, originally there was no road, just a track entirely unsuitable for the purpose. The Government did not want to fund it but instead offered up the assistance of the NZ Army to build it. In return, many of the Army folks got to play as Orcs in the films!
The Movie Set Tour
Once at the end of the road we disembarked from the Coach for the start of the Tour. Our guide was a chap called Keith who was very friendly and extremely knowledgeable. He had worked at Hobbiton for at least 10 years and has family ties to the making of the original films even, so as good a guide as you can get.
Keith led us, on foot, up and around the hills that make up the movie set. The pace was ok, often with plenty of time for photos in certain areas but not in others - such as narrow paths where you don't want to hold up the group. Keith helped take photos for people as well which was nice.
The set itself is so impressive. It's huge. The largest purpose built film set in the world, covering 14 acres. It is nestled in a valley with most of the many 44 hobbit holes dotted across the face of a hill, with winding paths up and around them, all overlooking a lake, across to where the Green Dragon Pub is located.
The attention to detail is superb. All of the Hobbit holes from the outside look genuinely lived in and maintained - most of the plants, flowers and vegetables growing are real and looked after by gardeners!
Just about all of the Hobbit holes are exterior facades only. There's 1 (or 2?) that the door opens and you can look inside, but there's nothing in there except a retaining wall a few meters in.
In recent years though due to popular demand they actually added Hobbit holes with full interiors. Beyond the scale of the overall place these were the most impressive thing. Every room is finished to such explicit detail it's incredible, something you have to see for yourself and a definite highlight of the Tour!
The Green Dragon Pub
Walking through the fully fleshed-out Hobbit holes concluded the Tour. We then all walked down the hill and over a stone bridge to the Green Dragon Pub for a complimentary Drink. The Green Dragon is a genuine pub, where you can order drinks and snacks and relax in the dark cosy interior, or sit outside overlooking the lake and the hillside to Hobbiton beyond.
We were still on a schedule though, and next up was lunch in the large Marquee tent next door. The tent is lined with standard sized tables that seat 6 a-piece, so for small groups and individuals you'll be sharing tables. Lucky for us as a group of 5 we had our own table. The lunch arrangement is a buffet with what I would loosely describe as an English Roast Dinner but with other options available such as Pasta and Salads. It's all you can eat of course. Desert was fantastic too, I helped myself to an enormous bowl of Apple Crumble - Yum! Our group was first in for Lunch so we had the most generous allotted time for lunch - a good 45 minutes at least.
From there it was back onto the Bus, up to Shire's Rest for those who wanted to do souvenir shopping, and a much quieter coach ride back to Rotorua. The whole day was 6-7 hours in total.
Cost
The day tour, including return Coach trips from Rotorua, visiting the Hobbiton Movie set and a buffet lunch was $1500 for 5 of us, equating to $300 each. It's expensive but OK value. My only gripe is that we had to pay full price for our under-2, which I'm flabbergasted with as just about anywhere you go, under 2's are free - even flying!
In closing
I'm not a fan of Tour groups. Being in a group of strangers being herded from A to B to C like a herd of Cattle on a tight schedule. It took the shine off it a little bit, but the place overall was so impressive that I'm at peace with it. I do think they could easily change that model and allow people to freely walk around the place - there were staff everywhere so a simple case of them keeping at eye on the guests to make sure they aren't doing anything they shouldn't do as well as answering questions. It would be a big improvement. I doubt this would ever happen though, as when you are there you can clearly see a number of the other tour groups not very far ahead, and it's blatantly obvious the place is setup to churn through as many high paying tourists as efficiently as possible.
It's expensive yes, but a truly impressive and interesting place to visit. If you are a Lord of the rings or Hobbit fan then It's a must visit wether you are a local or tourist. If you aren't a fan or haven't seen the films then I would not recommend it - it's a movie set after all and the context of the films and being there at Hobbiton makes all the difference to the experience - just watch the films, they are worth it.
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