The Shire (but we can't show you)

We thought it might be touristy, but it was great! We visited near Hinuera/Matamata this week and took the tour of the set for The Lord of the Rings trilogy. The farm is a long drive off the beaten path on Buckland Road in a stunningly beautiful valley. The movies do it justice. We had to sign confidentiality contracts agreeing to not show or post any photos or movies taken at the site or pass on any details we heard about the filming. We got to visit the hobbit village built recently for the prequel that’s in production now and Peter Jackson would be very grumpy if photos of that got out. But we can share some around the Shire’s Rest and Wool Shed.

When we arrived, an older guy and his dog Kate were mustering some sheep so we visited a bit with him. We figured he was a hired stockman on the farm. Karin talked to him for awhile inside and then he went out to chat with her while we waited for the bus to take us to the site down in the valley. Great old guy–that’s him in the hat; he wanted to hear all about her cow milking days at Ohinewai. They discussed the high prices of lamb in the store, what weeds he’s battling, and talked farming. She soon realized he was Ian Alexander, the farmer who owns the entire 1250 hectare sheep & cattle farm. When a location scout found this site, the Alexander family eventually gave permission to Peter Jackson to use their land for the movies way back in 1998. Ian and his sons still operate the farm, but also worked out a deal with the movie company to run visits to the Hobbiton set.. Sets built for the movie in other parts of the country were dismantled after filming. Anyway, the tour was fantastic. Ours was a small group and we walked around for 2 hours; Teresa was our fun tour guide and had loads of information. Wish we could tell you more, but we don’t want lawyers knocking on the blog door. Afterwards, we came back to Shire’s Rest to watch Craig shearing a sheep (Jim liked it) and got to feed some very hungry lambs. Jim even gave that a go.

A wonderful day. If you’re ever in this part of New Zealand, and even have a remote interest in the J.R.R. Tolkein stories, you really should do this.