The Star: June 01, 2017
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<strong>The</strong> <strong>Star</strong> 31<br />
Travel<br />
Latest Christchurch news at www.<br />
.kiwi<br />
Thursday <strong>June</strong> 1 2<strong>01</strong>7<br />
QUAINT: Fantasy meets reality at Middle Earth.<br />
SNUG: Have an ale at the Green Dragon Inn.<br />
Hobbiton casts you under a spell<br />
• By Mike Yardley<br />
MATAMATA’S lush emerald<br />
pastures and roly-poly hills are<br />
happily home to Hobbiton, the<br />
ultimate cinematic shrine for<br />
set-jetters in New Zealand.<br />
Like a third of all visitors, I have<br />
never watched or read an entire<br />
story or movie, from either trilogy.<br />
But for starry-eyed Tolkien<br />
junkies, a journey here has acquired<br />
the stature of a pilgrimage.<br />
To reach the movie set entails<br />
a short drive by bus across the<br />
Alexander family’s farmland on<br />
a private sealed road, which was<br />
built by the New Zealand Army<br />
to service the convoy of crew production<br />
vehicles and equipment.<br />
Sir Peter Jackson sweet-talked the<br />
then Prime Minister, Helen Clark,<br />
to approve the road’s construction.<br />
Alighting from the bus, the<br />
bright green grass is long and lush<br />
as we trundle down the muddy<br />
track to the first hobbit house,<br />
where ‘the Hobbiton effect” suddenly<br />
washes over me.<br />
Unlike so many movie locations,<br />
Hobbiton casts you under<br />
its spell because it’s exactly the<br />
same as it appears on screen.<br />
It’s all so sweet and tender, with<br />
washing hanging on a line near a<br />
chimney poking out of a grassy<br />
mound.<br />
Baskets are plump with pumpkins,<br />
while flowers and herbs<br />
have been hung up to dry by a<br />
round yellow door. As we walked<br />
down a gravelled path, some<br />
members of my group frothed<br />
with delight, recognising it as the<br />
REALISTIC: Hobbiton is exactly the same as it appears on screen.<br />
spot where Frodo Baggins greeted<br />
Gandalf at the start of <strong>The</strong> Fellowship<br />
of the Ring. And these tingly<br />
movie moments just kept on<br />
coming, as we strolled around the<br />
44 hobbit houses that are strung<br />
around the hillsides, fizzing with<br />
excitement being photographed<br />
outside Bag End or sitting on the<br />
see-saw beneath <strong>The</strong> Party Tree,<br />
where Bilbo held his eleventy-first<br />
birthday. I was fully submerged in<br />
the fantasy-meets-reality world of<br />
Middle Earth.<br />
It’s little wonder that 450,000<br />
visitors toured the movie set, last<br />
year alone. Winding our way<br />
around the hills, the panoramic<br />
views reach right across the lake<br />
to the stone bridge, the watermill<br />
and the Green Dragon Inn, which<br />
looked like a life-sized thatched<br />
cottage from my grandmother’s<br />
Lilliput Lane collection.<br />
Sir Peter Jackson’s art director,<br />
Brian Massey, ensured everything<br />
down to the mugs maintained<br />
complete faith with how <strong>The</strong><br />
Green Dragon Inn was depicted<br />
onscreen.<br />
A triumph of expert craftsmanship,<br />
it’s a charmingly snug and<br />
toasty timbered environment, and<br />
the crackling open fire was an extra<br />
thrill to warm the cockles, on<br />
a chilly April day. All the brews<br />
are exclusively created by Good<br />
George Brewing, in Frankton.<br />
Maybe it was the ale, but as I<br />
re-boarded the bus to depart, I<br />
felt like I was stepping out of a<br />
movie. It really doesn’t matter<br />
whether you’re a film fanatic or<br />
not.<br />
<strong>The</strong> movie set sits on 4.8ha of<br />
land and my charming guide,<br />
Kate, shared a constant flow of<br />
fascinating bite-sized nuggets<br />
about Hobbiton.<br />
An over-riding theme is the<br />
meticulous attention to detail<br />
that Jackson demanded. All of the<br />
farm’s livestock had to be removed<br />
when shooting took place,<br />
because they didn’t look English<br />
enough. Suffolk sheep, notable for<br />
their black faces and legs, were<br />
hauled up from the South Island<br />
during shooting.<br />
Real apple and pear trees<br />
were stripped of their and<br />
replaced with plastic leaves and<br />
plums, even though they only<br />
featured for three seconds in the<br />
movie.<br />
A fake oak tree, created from<br />
silicon, was dressed with 200,000<br />
fake leaves. Jackson didn’t like<br />
the colour of the leaves, so they<br />
were all re-painted by hand, even<br />
though the tree was only in shot<br />
for 10 seconds.<br />
Kate also revealed that moss<br />
and lichen was liberally deployed<br />
to give the movie-set’s fences a<br />
weathered, old look. <strong>The</strong>y created<br />
fake moss and lichen by blending<br />
woodchips, yoghurt and paint<br />
together.<br />
As they were during filming,<br />
the vegetable patches are still<br />
filled with super-sized plants so as<br />
the hobbits would look smaller.<br />
Technically, it is still an “active<br />
set,” and a team from Weta<br />
visit every six months to give it a<br />
touch up.<br />
<strong>The</strong> hanging clothes were deliberately<br />
made to hang on the line<br />
for up to two years, before being<br />
replaced.<br />
A full-time gardening team<br />
work daily on maintaining the<br />
picturesque appearance of the<br />
trees, flowers and lawn.<br />
FAST FACTS<br />
•Visiting Hobbiton gives<br />
you the chance to relish a<br />
remarkably tangible piece<br />
of living cinema history. Visit<br />
www.hobbitontours.com<br />
•Treat yourself to a bumper<br />
self-drive escape. Thrifty Car<br />
Rental offers hot deals, swift<br />
service and an excellent<br />
fleet in handy locations.<br />
Blue Chip members enjoy<br />
lightning-fast pick-ups. AA<br />
Members can save up to 30<br />
per cent off the all-inclusive<br />
rental rates. www.thrifty.<br />
co.nz<br />
Spend $10 at<br />
a participating<br />
airport outlet<br />
during <strong>June</strong><br />
for your chance<br />
to win.*<br />
*For more details, go to<br />
eatshopwinatrip.co.nz