Hobbiton – a fantastic experience!

(Matamata, New Zealand, 15th of January 2017)

After yesterday’s hard work today´s bike ride was a piece of cake. The reasonably flat cycle tour was 55,8 km long and with 161 meters of altitude. Today’s destination was Matamata where we had booked a room in advance at the hotel tavern Horse & Jockey Inn. Matamata is a popular tourist destination as it is the closest city to Hobbiton Movie Set. As we already knew in advance that we would arrive before lunch, we had booked a bus tour to Hobbiton at 15.00 on the same day.

Unfortunately, the weather turned out to not be the best and when it was time for us to step on the green Hobbiton bus it had started to rain.

Our bus driver was totally crazy and drove as a maniac on the narrow, winding roads while telling stories about Hobbiton and pulled jokes. We watched some movies about the film recordings, including Peter Jackson and the lucky landowners to the little field were Hobbiton was recorded. When we arrived at the Hobbiton village the rain started to pour down, but fortunately they had umbrellas for us to borrow and we were provided with rain clothes.

What a fantastically beautiful world Hobbiton was. It was ompletely fascinating with all the small details and everything felt very realistic.

/Christel