Whenever we hear New Zealand, certain images, including sheep, wine, and Middle Earth (since the release of movies ‘The Hobbit’ and “The Lord of the Rings”) automatically come to mind. We are fans of the Hobbit movies, so we went to Middle Earth to see where Bilbo, Gandalf, and Gollum lived on the Hobbiton movie set. We were expecting a touristy, commercialized enterprise, but came away impressed with the quality of the experience, and would highly recommend it to Hobbit fans.

The setting in Matamata was selected by Peter Jackson, the movie director of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy epic fantasy adventures. Jackson flew over the Alexander farms property in 1998 and it reminded him of a slice of ancient England, complete with lake, and his team set about to carve out the Hobbit holes in the hillsides on a temporary-basis, using untreated lumber and traditional set making materials. To create the setting envisioned, some of the trees were brought in and planted full size, and some were artificially created, with each leaf individually hand painted to match the colors Jackson envisioned. The tour leaders were quite well trained and knew how to control the crowds, and the large number of tour groups were organized in a way that we did not feel the crowds.

There were 44 Hobbit Holes created for the movies (some are only facades). Two new homes have been added in December 2023 that fully furnished and available to visit inside. This initial movie set was not built to last, so homes and trails were rebuilt with more permanent materials for the tour. The surrounding area is untouched, with no power lines, no visible roads and no ancillary buildings other than the Inn, where we were offered cider or a beer. The site of the Shire is stunning.

For this tour, you get an opportunity to wander down the rambling paths of The Shire, see the Hobbit Holes in the rolling hillsides, and hear about some of the famous scenes in this 12-acre set. There were lots of Hobbit Holes created as part of the movie set, and the audience was asked to spot the homes of the bee keeper, the town drunk, and other characters in the village. The village was well made and well maintained, and in 2021, brought in $78 Million in revenue.

The interiors of two new Hobbit Holes were created on Bagshot Row, Venture Beyond the Doors, and opened in December, 2023. They are complete with scaled interiors, so people can enjoy how it would be to live inside a Hobbit home. Burt is reading a newspaper on the dining room table (middle left) and Evelyn is sitting at a desk overlooking the shire (middle right). The creators wanted people to touch and feel everything in the set. The hobbits were only 3 feet 6 inches tall, so the interiors have been scaled up to fit tourists. The tour groups were sized so that everyone had enough room for photographs without other tourists in the way, and welcomed everyone to sit or lay on the furniture, touch all the props and experience living in a Hobbit home.

We were told by our friends from Christchurch NOT to miss seeing the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa in Wellington. How right they were — this is one of the absolute finest museum displays we have ever experienced. Our favorite was exploring the award-winning exhibit: Gallipoli: The Scale of Our War. Te Papa joined forces with Weta Workshops, a special effects and props company, to create an exhibit like no other. From the moment we walked into the first display, our jaws dropped. It is that incredible.

Fought during World War 1 (1914 -18), Gallipoli was the first major amphibious operation. British and French troops landed on the Gallipoli peninsula in Ottoman Turkey with disastrous consequences for the Allies, which was directed by Winston Churchill. Churchill envisioned knocking Turkey out of the war to help the Russians, but the campaign failed. For the 16,000 Australians and New Zealanders who landed on that day, 2000 were killed or wounded. Overall, 27,000 French and 115,000 British and other troops were also killed or wounded.

The Gallipoli Campaign– “The battles fought by the Australian Imperial Force at Gallipoli are widely regarded as the foundation legend of Australian military history, and a potent symbol of federated Australia.” The dioramas were built over-sized, so you are enveloped into the scene. The detailed sculptures were so well done, that you could even seen tears from the nurse (right bottom).

There were many other wonderful displays at the Te Papa Museum, including the one on dinosaurs. We could easily have spent a day there.