Dinner at Hobbiton – Day 15

Today we are going to Hobbiton Hobbiton Hobbiton. We are pretty pumped because we are going to Hobbiton today.

See ya later.

We are going to Hobbiton.

Today, we are crossing Middle-earth from Te Aroha to Hobbiton in Matamata. During the drive to Matamata we were pumping ourselves up. We listened to the soundtrack of the Lord of the Rings blasting as loud as we could. We were singing, we were yelling, we were doing the roar of the orcs. I have been dreaming about this Hobbiton stuff for a long time. I am extremely excited about this Hobbiton stuff. I am hungry. I will eat until I can’t walk anymore. this is going to be awesome. So the tour starts by a nice little drive by bus to the Hobbiton Movie Set and we pass through a lot of rolling hills and sheep grazing and all those beautiful things with the sun starting to set. And then we start walking toward Hobbiton. Now the crowd of tourists just start walking through this very small channel then this when Hobbiton unveils and you start seeing the whole Shire just right in front of your eyes. It’s just mesmerising. It’s really really gorgeous.

We have two tour guides taking us around the Hobbiton Movie Set this evening. We have Cass, you know, standard name. But then we have Samwise Gamgee, who is also taking us around Hobbiton. Well, his name’s Sam but that’s the perfect name for such an event.

You know all the Hobbit Holes. We see Bag End, where Frodo and Bilbo like to hang out. There’s Samwise Gamgee’s Hobbit Hole as well. It’s all there. We were even like knocking on a few doors to see if any of the Hobbits were in but no one was in.

I’ve got my Hobbit on!

There is no way you can take bad picture of Hobbiton. Then sun always looks amazing and the hills always look gorgeous. I don’t know how that works, but it always always always looks good. The morning, the evening: any time it looks gorgeous.

A good tip though for if you are doing a tour in Hobbiton: you don’t need to rush to get to the front because the tour guide actually spoke really clearly. We could hear everything she was saying and still get all the stories of Hobbiton and all the behind-the-scenes. Just wait behind, wait for everyone to move out of the way and then take your pictures of the Hobbit Hole.

What are you doing, Laura? I’m just seeing if Pippin is in.

Slowly the sun is setting and the colours are changing across Hobbiton. The lights are starting to glisten in the background and across the lake you can see The Green Dragon with the lanterns glistening and reflecting off the lake and bringing a tear to our eyes.

And we’re not going just to Hobbiton, right. We are going for a feast. We are going to dine like kings or more probably like Hobbits.

And then we arrive at the Green Dragon. We are getting inside the bar and ordering our lovely drink.

Another thing about the Hobbiton Food Experience is they have their own specially-brewed beers and ciders and non-alcoholic ginger beer. So we go and sit by the fire and talk about our travels and journey, the Unexpected Journey to come.

And then Sam, our lovely guide, calls us gathers us in front of the curtains for a grand reveal. And bam, they open the thick curtain unveiling the whole dining room. There is so much food on the table, right. there are some mushrooms, there are some potatoes, there are some vegetables, there is some roasted chicken, there is some beef stew, there is some roasted pork, there are some stuffed pumpkins, there is some marinated onions or whatever. Beef, meatballs, there were some beans, there were some capsicums, there were some garlic, there were a bit of everything.

Po-ta-toes: boil ’em, mash ’em, stick ’em in a stew.

At Hobbiton, first servings are a must, second servings are compulsory, third servings are mandatory, fourth servings are not advised but some people just have them anyway.

It was pretty amazing like the amount of food there was there and all day Robin has been saying: “I’m going to stuff myself so much tonight. I’m going to have every course I can get. I’m going to eat so much until I’m sick.” Well… Guess what? Robin does exactly that. He keeps… Yep… There’s no stopping him. He’s just eating everything he can get and there’s so much food, it could feed you know, an army of orcs. But he succeeds to eat as much as he can until he looks like a mountain troll. Yeah, I think Robin eats an entire pavlova to himself and then later on in the evening he starts to hiccup and burp and make strange noises beside me. All in all, he was pretty ill that night because he ate far too much.

I cannot move. After feeding ourselves way too much, we then get we are all given a lantern – well, one lantern between two. We have to buddy up with a lantern buddy. Now, the walk through Hobbiton at night is really magical. It’s like a fairy tale, you know. You go through village which is well-lit and there is the reflection of all those nightlights over the lake. We all gather round, we put our lanterns in a circle so they are all facing Sam who is our tour guide, not Samwise Gamgee unfortunately, and he tells us some stories behind-the-scenes stories of how they made this Party Tree scene and how they got all the friends and family of the crew to have a massive party. Literally, the scene was a massive party and in real life it was a massive party.

All I want to do is go to Hobbiton. All I want to do is see our little Hobbitses and eat with the Hobbitses but no, I have to be here with this: He’s nothing but a troll.