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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

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