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On 2 July we visited the Hobbiton Movie set and in the evening experienced Māori culture by visiting a Tamika Village.
It was drizzling with rain as we looked down on the rolling hills of the Shire, home of Bilbo and Frodo Baggins. The only dissapointng thing was there was not a hairy footed Hobbit in sight. Hobbiton is set in 12 acres in the middle of a 1200 acre working sheep and cattle farm. It had been dismantled after Lord of the Rings, then re-established for the Hobbit. After filming the owner of the farm asked that the set remain, and as they say, the rest is history. Apart from reception staff, tour guides and bus drivers there are gardners, tradesmen and bar staff. Given the crowds of people visiting in the middle of Winter on a rainy day, I think that the farmer is probably making more from tourism then sheep and cows. It is difficult to tell what is real or fake, even some of the vegetables in the garden are movie props. There is even a realistic 15 metre oak tree that has over 200,000 hand painted leaves. Despite all this hard work the tree only features for around 5 seconds in the film. After a walking tour looking at all the Hobbit holes we ended up at the Green Dragon Inn for a complimentary ale (the only real building on the set). They only give you 20 minutes to have a drink before you are ushered back to the bus... so there is no way you could ever over indulge. It was then in the car and the 1.5 hr drive back to Rotorua for an hour of rest before we visited the Māori village and hangi dinner. Everything about it was great experience, from the welcoming ceremony or powhiri, the food and traditional songs and dances. The only thing I hope no one sees is the short video Jane took of Ali and me doing a very poor version of the haka.
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Shaz Bring on the video.