Happy in Hobbiton, plus a trip to Tirau

Today we stirred ourselves from our comfortable apartment and went in search of Hobbiton--but more about that later. Along the way we stopped in the charming village of Tirau, billed as the "corrugated iron capital of NZ." As you can see, almost every establishment along the main street has a creative sign made of what they call "wiggly tin" here. The blue bird is a pukeko, a ground dwelling bird, indeed a dark shiny blue with a huge red beak and gigantic yellow feet at the bottom of ridiculously long legs--we see them alongside the road all the time. One of our NZ acquaintences was raising a pukeko chick whose mother had been hit on the road, and its tiny body was so laughably out of proportion to its enormous legs and feet, it looked like a cartoon. Even the adults are pretty improbable looking--this one's feet aren't nearly big enough to reflect reality.



Anyway, onward to Matamata, a hitherto unknown town in NZ, propelled to instant fame as the location of "The Shire" in The Lord of the Rings. This filming site is unique in that, becaue it is on private land (a sheep farm belonging to the Alexander family), permission was granted to leave a portion of the built set undemolished after filming. Thus, the Alexanders now enjoy a tidy business running guided tours, the only way to see the site as it is very far back from the road behind rolling hills.

Well, the $50 fee (at current exchange, only about $37.50 CDN, she consoled herself...) was too much for Frank (sensibly), but die-hard LOTR fans will go to any lengths, so...and, in fact, it was worth the money.With only 7 others, I enjoyed a 2 hour tour, full of insider anecdotes and fun facts that will be of great use in my Tolkien course. The site is charming, and it is easy to imagine yourself really in Hobbiton, sitting on the steps or gazing out of the front door of Bag End (Bilbo's house), or blowing smoke-rings with Gandalf overlooking the party tree. A bonus was seing the "You're late!" scene site (between Frodo and Gandalf at the beginning of The Fellowship of the Ring) and the "if I take one more step, it'll be the farthest I've ever gone away from home" (Sam to Frodo in the same movie) site.

LOTR fans will have no trouble recognizing the scenes below--for non-fans, well, just enjoy the scenery!