Travel With Betsy

“I’m Going on an Adventure”……

…at Hobbiton…..the movie set of the movie “The Hobbit”…..

I am going to say right up front that I don’t know anything about the Hobbits. I haven’t read the books, and I haven’t seen the movies. And, I have to admit that I wasn’t that excited about seeing the movie set. But, my friends are big fans of the books and the movies and really wanted to do this……and it was on the route to our next destination. The fact that we were all traveling together in the same car made it an easy decision.

I have to say that it was one of the most pleasant surprises of the trip so far. I still don’t know anything about the story of “The Hobbit”. And frankly, I doubt that I will read the books….or see the movies. But, it was well worth the effort just to see the beauty of the set and to learn a bit about these unusual characters.

The set was a miniature, old-fashioned looking town that was lush and green with lots of flower and vegetable gardens.

We wandered through the town, winding our way up and down the dirt streets of the small town. When we got to the top of the hills, we could look out to the rolling countryside and see sheep dotting the bright green grass that was visible as far as the eye could see.

We saw huge oak trees that I would guess were quite old.

In addition to the real trees, the tour guide pointed out one fake tree that was made for the movie with something like 200,000 silk leaves. If they hadn’t pointed it out, we wouldn’t have known that it wasn’t part of the original scenery. It was very realistic.

We are here in the New Zealand fall, so we also saw lots of pumpkins hiding among their leafy vines as we walked along. The caretakers of the property were participating in a local contest to see who could grow the largest pumpkin. Some of the pumpkins were huge!

I was quite amused by the small “holes” that served as the homes of the “hobbits”. They were built into the sides of hills.

The only thing visible from the walkway where we stood to view the “hole” was the small front door. The sides of the hills where the doors were inserted were the same bright green grass as the surrounding fields. All of the houses had pretty gardens and some indication of the occupations and interests of the different “hobbits”.

Of course, there was nothing inside the “hole”. It was all for show. So, we couldn’t go all the way in. But, we could stand in the doorways…those of us who could fit, anyway…..and get some pictures of ourselves, which, of course, I did.

The “Hobbit” life is not the life for me.  From what I could get about the story, life for them could be somewhat complicated, especially when they were on a great adventure. Obviously, I like the adventure part, but not the complicated part. Even though some of my great adventures can be complicated, I don’t usually find myself getting into a physical altercation of any type. My adventures usually just require some problem-solving and thought.

I kind of like it that way.

So, I am now off to the next adventure, which will include tasting the Sauvignon Blanc wines that are famous in New Zealand.

This is my kind of adventure!

Stay tuned!

This entry was posted on March 12, 2018 at 10:23 pm and is filed under Group Travel, New Zealand, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.