Hobbiton factsheet

 TRAVEL WITH CHRIS BROWN
HOBBITON – NEW ZEALAND
Amanda has lost her ring, and naturally sends Chris on a quest to find it…..in Middle Earth! He heads to New Zealand’s North Island and journeys through epic landscapes, the Waitomo Caves and a real live Hobbition, along the way discovering the amazing locations and characters featured in The Lord of The Rings and The Hobbit film. It’s on this amazing adventure that takes you behind the scenes of these epic cinematic experiences. But at the end of the day, will he find Amanda’s lost ring? THE SHIRE – HOBBITON
Chris travels to one of New Zealand’s most famous movie sets ‘Hobbiton’ to search of Amanda’s lost ring. As Chris ganders around middle-­‐earth he checks out Bilbo’s digs, Bag End and has a taste of the Hobbiton delights at the Green Dragon Inn and meets a couple of locals! ‘The Shire’ most commonly known as ‘Hobbiton’ is a region from J.R.R Tolkien’s fictional middle earth, which is occupied exclusively by Hobbits and features in Peter Jacksons movies ‘The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy’ and ‘The Hobbit Trilogy’. The Hobbiton set is located in North Islands Waikato region just out of rural town Matamata, a two-­‐hour drive from Auckland and resides on the farm owned by the Alexandria family. Hobbiton consists of many hobbit homes including ‘The Green Dragon Inn’ featured in both ‘The Lord of The Rings’ and ‘The Hobbit’ as the local meeting place for the resident Hobbiton’s and includes the featured home ‘Bag End’ of hobbit ‘Bilbo’ along with the rest of the hobbit village. Tours of The Shire take up to 2hrs. Visitors are escorted through the twelve-­‐arce site recounting fascinating details of how the ‘Hobbiton’ movie was created. Tour prices from the Shires Rest (NZ dollars) Adults $75 / Youth (10-­‐14yrs) $37.50 / Child (5-­‐9yrs) $10 http://www.hobbitontours.com/ FAST FACTS - HOBBITON
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Peter Jackson discovered Alexander Farm for the location of Hobbiton during an aerial search. With no road access, the New Zealand Army was contracted to build the 1.5km of road needed to get to the location. Forty four ‘hobbit holes’ were created at the site with each one being unique and different. The oak tree overlooking ‘Bag End’ was bought in from another location in Matamata. Each branch was chopped off and numbered for transportation and bolted back together. The first Hobbiton set was built in 1999 for ‘The Lord of the Rings Trilogy’. And rebuilt in 2011 for ‘The Hobbit Trilogy’. The ‘Hobbiton’ set has now had more than 300,000 visitors since opening in 2002. Only seven Matamata locals where cast in the film as extras out of 800. All seven where made to sign confidentiality agreements stating they couldn’t tell anyone they were part of the movie. Now they refer themselves to the chosen few. The Hobbit was written by J.R.R. Tolkin and published in 1937 and met with instant critical acclaim. Source: http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/auckland-­‐places/page-­‐19 THE HOBBIT – THE BATTLE OF THE FIVE ARMIES
Life at Hobbiton is quiet and complete for hobbit, ‘Bilbo Baggins’, until old friend, wizard Gandalf pays him a visit. Gandalf persuades Bilbo to join him and a group of militant dwarves on a journey to reclaim their treasure from the dragon Smaug. The adventure is thwart with many dangerous encounters and battles far from the comfortable life of Hobbiton and life will never be the same for ‘Bilbo Baggins’. Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit was initially made as two movies but he soon realised in order to cover the book to it’s true essence, a third movie would be needed to help translate the adventure. Filming took place in and around New Zealand from March 2011 to July 2012 and the films have been released each year consecutively with the final of the trilogy to be released at the end of 2014. The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies is the final battle. The Dwarves reclaim their homeland from the Dragon Smaug and in the process have unwittingly unleashed a deadly force creating an epic Battle of the Five Armies. The Dwarves, Elves and Men have to decide to unite or to be destroyed by their enemy Sauron, who sends out its army of Orcs to attack and take over. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (released December 2012) The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (released December 2013) The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (release December 2014) SOURCE: http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/hobbit/summary.html GETTING THERE
Air New Zealand flies non-­‐stop, year round to Auckland from Perth, Cairns, Sunshine Coast, Brisbane, Gold Coast, Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide. You can choose one of four ways to travel, Seat, Seat+Bag, The Works or Works Deluxe. Visit airnewzealand.com.au for more info. WEBLINKS
http://newzealand.com www.airnewzealand.com.au http://www.hobbitontours.com/