"Do you Remember the Shire, Mr. Frodo?"

Hi Blog! On November 23, 2015, we stopped at Hobbiton on our way to the Coromandel Peninsula. After purchasing our tickets, we boarded a tour bus with 40 other Lord of the Rings fans. After a short drive through the rolling New Zealand countryside, we were let off just outside The Shire. Here Dave examines a map with a layout of the town.

As you walk up a short path, you begin to see the large green valley where The Shire is located. When Peter Jackson began to look for suitable locations for The Lord of the Rings film series he first saw the Alexander Farm during an aerial search in 1998 and concluded that the area was "like a slice of ancient England". Set Decorator Alan Lee commented that the location's hills "looked as though Hobbits had already begun excavations". Part of the site has a lake with a long arm that could double as a river.

While the area was open for tours prior to The Hobbit Movies, much of the original Lord of the Rings set had deteriorated since it was made with paper machette and chicken wire. In 2010, the set was rebuilt in a more permanent fashion for "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey," filming for which began in 2011. The Alexanders wanted the structure to stand up to the elements so they could continue to conduct tours. Here is our first look at a newly reconstructed hobbit hole.

There are facades for 37 hobbit holes and associated gardens and hedges, a mill and double arch bridge. Thatch on the pub and mill roofs is made from rushes growing on the property. Not all hobbit holes are the same size. Some are small to make the human visitors appear large.

Other homes are large to make human actors appear to be hobbit-sized.

There is nothing inside the houses. All of the interior shots were filmed in studio. However, the outside of each home is extensively decorated to appear as if it is currently being used.

The lanes are well kept and well marked so that you don't get lost going from Bree to Underhill. This is the exact path that Gandalf used as he entered The Shire.

Here is how The Shire looked in the movie.

Everyone had to stop at Bag End and take a photo of Bilbo's house.

We also enjoyed our chance to walk around the party field.

Right next door to the party field is Samwise Gamgee's house.

Our final destination is the Green Dragon pub just across the Brandywine River. Which really isn't a river, but just a small arm of the lake.

We traveled across the bridge just like Gandalf and Frodo.

Only our cart was filled with beer!

The Green Dragon interior movie scenes were shot in studios in Wellington. When the sets were dismantled, the interior set pieces were brought to Hobbiton and reconstructed inside The Green Dragon Inn. The folks at the Green Dragon stand ready to serve you only the finest Hobbit fare as well as a fresh pint from Southfarthing.

We really enjoyed our tour.  Because Hobbiton is one of the most popular tourist attractions in New Zealand, there are lots of folks being led through the town. The tour operators try to keep the tours spaced out, but a couple times we had to wait for another group to leave before we could proceed. We didn't mind waiting. It gave us more time to take photos and ask our tour guide lots of questions. In fact, we took so many photos, we couldn't fit them all in this blog. So, if you want to see more photos from Hobbiton, just click on the link to our Flickr page.

After leaving Hobbiton, we drove over to the Coromandel Peninsula. It was an amazing drive. For more on that adventure, check out the next blog entry.