{"id":2239,"date":"2018-07-18T23:00:05","date_gmt":"2018-07-18T23:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/expedia.blog.au.local\/mos-big-new-zealand-adventure-part-three-hobbiton\/"},"modified":"2022-08-08T23:26:31","modified_gmt":"2022-08-08T23:26:31","slug":"mos-big-new-zealand-adventure-part-three-hobbiton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.au\/stories\/mos-big-new-zealand-adventure-part-three-hobbiton\/","title":{"rendered":"Mo\u2019s Big New Zealand Adventure\u2014Part Three: Hobbiton"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>This piece was contributed by Matt Officen of Tourism Media.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Psssst, I\u2019ve got a confession. I\u2019ve <em>never <\/em>seen <em>The Hobbit<\/em>, or any of the <em>Lord of The Rings <\/em>films. I\u2019ve heard that Tolkien\u2019s books are the second most read in history \u2013 after the Bible. It seems that every man and his dog has read about the adventures of Baggins &amp; Co., except me. I\u2019m just not a fantasy-inclined kinda guy. Whenever I see a kid with a wand, I just wanna snap it over my knee.<\/p>\n<p>So as our tour coach motored through the lush, rolling hills of New Zealand\u2019s Waikato region towards Hobbiton, I kept my head low as my fellow passengers rabbited on excitedly about Gandalf and the thirteen dwarves. As the only photographer accompanying a group of Aussie travel experts on a Tourism New Zealand \u2018immersion experience\u2019, I thought I\u2019d be able to snap off a few shots and then catch a nap under a hedgerow while my companions waddled off to explore Middle Earth.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-17721\" src=\"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.au\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/AC9I4735.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"449\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Hobbiton was one of the primary movie sets created for the <em>Hobbit <\/em>and <em>Lord of the Rings <\/em>epics. Just ten kilometres from the farming town of Matamata, the set has become one of New Zealand\u2019s star attractions and a major pilgrimage site for Hobbit botherers.<\/p>\n<p>As our guide began to lead us through the laneways and paths of Hobbiton, I couldn\u2019t help but appreciate the attention to detail lavished on every aspect of the 14-acre set. As a photographer who spends his days viewing the world through the confines of a lens, I\u2019m attuned to noticing the little things, and here amid the Hobbit Holes of The Shire, director Peter Jackson\u2019s uncompromising eye for detail was evident everywhere I looked.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-17722\" src=\"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.au\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/AC9I4652-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"449\" \/><\/p>\n<p>\u201cSee this moss?\u201d our guide asked, pointing to a lichen-covered fence paling. \u201cOne guy was employed to fling a mixture of sawdust, yogurt and glue over the entire set to create moss and make the entire village look hundreds of years old.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNotice the tracks through the fields and to the clotheslines,\u201d he continued, \u201cPeter Jackson employed a woman to walk through the grass every day for months before shooting commenced to give the village that lived-in look.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I scoured the set for shortcuts and cheats, but everywhere I looked it was if Frodo and Friends had just left that afternoon on a new quest. As we continued, butterflies danced amid flower gardens, plump fruit hung from trees and real smoke curled from the chimneys of Hobbit Holes. Hobbiton was quickly working its magic into my cynical soul.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-17723\" src=\"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.au\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/AC9I4662-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"449\" \/><\/p>\n<p>After two hours of genuine oohhhing and ahhhing, the merry sounds of fiddle-playing drew us through the welcoming doors of the Green Dragon, where a crackling fire awaited. Perhaps it was the specially brewed ales, but as the setting sun spilled its gold through the frosted windows and across the pub\u2019s carved interior, I felt transported into another realm. Then with a theatrical, \u201cone, two, three\u201d, a set of curtains were pulled back to reveal a grand banquet room, filled with long banquet tables groaning with platters of roast meats and stuffed pumpkins worthy of Gandalf himself.<\/p>\n<p>After our feast we rolled out of the Green Dragon, were paired with a \u2018lantern buddy\u2019 and set off like lightheaded children for a night-time tour of the village. As we danced and listened to stories beneath the fabled Party Tree and a million Aurora stars, I heard someone say, \u201cI want to stay here forever, I don\u2019t want to ever go back to the real world.\u201d I must admit, I felt exactly the same way. Thank you Tourism New Zealand, for a most unexpected journey!<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-17724\" src=\"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.au\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/AC9I4822-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"449\" \/><\/p>\n<p>P.S.: No prizes for guessing what I\u2019m reading at the moment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hobbiton was one of the primary movie sets created for the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings epics. Just ten kilometres from the farming town of Matamata, the set has become one of New Zealand\u2019s star attractions and a major pilgrimage site for Hobbit botherers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2244,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,6,2,3,14,380],"tags":[128,89],"authors":[],"class_list":["post-2239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-adventure","category-destination","category-experiences","category-explore","category-interests","category-new-zealand","tag-adventure","tag-new-zealand","entry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Mo\u2019s Big New Zealand Adventure\u2014Part Three: Hobbiton - Expedia AU Stories<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Hobbiton was one of the primary movie sets created for the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings epics. Just ten kilometres from the farming town of Matamata, the set has become one of New Zealand\u2019s star attractions and a major pilgrimage site for Hobbit botherers.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.au\/stories\/mos-big-new-zealand-adventure-part-three-hobbiton\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mo\u2019s Big New Zealand Adventure\u2014Part Three: Hobbiton - Expedia AU Stories\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Hobbiton was one of the primary movie sets created for the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings epics. Just ten kilometres from the farming town of Matamata, the set has become one of New Zealand\u2019s star attractions and a major pilgrimage site for Hobbit botherers.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.au\/stories\/mos-big-new-zealand-adventure-part-three-hobbiton\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Expedia AU Stories\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-07-18T23:00:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-08-08T23:26:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.au\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/AC9I4652-1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1750\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"983\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jamie McNeely\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jamie McNeely\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.au\/stories\/mos-big-new-zealand-adventure-part-three-hobbiton\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.au\/stories\/mos-big-new-zealand-adventure-part-three-hobbiton\/\",\"name\":\"Mo\u2019s Big New Zealand Adventure\u2014Part Three: Hobbiton - Expedia AU Stories\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.au\/stories\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2018-07-18T23:00:05+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-08-08T23:26:31+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.au\/stories\/#\/schema\/person\/7c3ff1d241163ecf78de48671f1787ce\"},\"description\":\"Hobbiton was one of the primary movie sets created for the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings epics. Just ten kilometres from the farming town of Matamata, the set has become one of New Zealand\u2019s star attractions and a major pilgrimage site for Hobbit botherers.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.au\/stories\/mos-big-new-zealand-adventure-part-three-hobbiton\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.au\/stories\/mos-big-new-zealand-adventure-part-three-hobbiton\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.au\/stories\/mos-big-new-zealand-adventure-part-three-hobbiton\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Explore\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.au\/stories\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Interests\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.au\/stories\/interests\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Adventure\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.au\/stories\/interests\/adventure\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":4,\"name\":\"Mo\u2019s Big New Zealand Adventure\u2014Part Three: Hobbiton\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.au\/stories\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.au\/stories\/\",\"name\":\"Expedia AU Stories\",\"description\":\"Just another WordPress site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.au\/stories\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.au\/stories\/#\/schema\/person\/7c3ff1d241163ecf78de48671f1787ce\",\"name\":\"Jamie McNeely\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.au\/stories\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c6c5fcb9612549bc286e9121c24dc652?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c6c5fcb9612549bc286e9121c24dc652?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Jamie McNeely\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.waveinteractive.com\/\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.au\/stories\/author\/jamie-mcneely\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Mo\u2019s Big New Zealand Adventure\u2014Part Three: Hobbiton - Expedia AU Stories","description":"Hobbiton was one of the primary movie sets created for the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings epics. Just ten kilometres from the farming town of Matamata, the set has become one of New Zealand\u2019s star attractions and a major pilgrimage site for Hobbit botherers.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.au\/stories\/mos-big-new-zealand-adventure-part-three-hobbiton\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Mo\u2019s Big New Zealand Adventure\u2014Part Three: Hobbiton - Expedia AU Stories","og_description":"Hobbiton was one of the primary movie sets created for the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings epics. Just ten kilometres from the farming town of Matamata, the set has become one of New Zealand\u2019s star attractions and a major pilgrimage site for Hobbit botherers.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.au\/stories\/mos-big-new-zealand-adventure-part-three-hobbiton\/","og_site_name":"Expedia AU Stories","article_published_time":"2018-07-18T23:00:05+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-08-08T23:26:31+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1750,"height":983,"url":"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.au\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/AC9I4652-1.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Jamie McNeely","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jamie McNeely","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.au\/stories\/mos-big-new-zealand-adventure-part-three-hobbiton\/","url":"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.au\/stories\/mos-big-new-zealand-adventure-part-three-hobbiton\/","name":"Mo\u2019s Big New Zealand Adventure\u2014Part Three: Hobbiton - Expedia AU Stories","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.au\/stories\/#website"},"datePublished":"2018-07-18T23:00:05+00:00","dateModified":"2022-08-08T23:26:31+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.au\/stories\/#\/schema\/person\/7c3ff1d241163ecf78de48671f1787ce"},"description":"Hobbiton was one of the primary movie sets created for the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings epics. Just ten kilometres from the farming town of Matamata, the set has become one of New Zealand\u2019s star attractions and a major pilgrimage site for Hobbit botherers.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.au\/stories\/mos-big-new-zealand-adventure-part-three-hobbiton\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.expedia.com.au\/stories\/mos-big-new-zealand-adventure-part-three-hobbiton\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.au\/stories\/mos-big-new-zealand-adventure-part-three-hobbiton\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Explore","item":"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.au\/stories\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Interests","item":"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.au\/stories\/interests\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Adventure","item":"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.au\/stories\/interests\/adventure\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":4,"name":"Mo\u2019s Big New Zealand Adventure\u2014Part Three: Hobbiton"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.au\/stories\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.au\/stories\/","name":"Expedia AU Stories","description":"Just another WordPress site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.au\/stories\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.au\/stories\/#\/schema\/person\/7c3ff1d241163ecf78de48671f1787ce","name":"Jamie McNeely","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.au\/stories\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c6c5fcb9612549bc286e9121c24dc652?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c6c5fcb9612549bc286e9121c24dc652?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Jamie McNeely"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/www.waveinteractive.com\/"],"url":"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.au\/stories\/author\/jamie-mcneely\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.au\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2239"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.au\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.au\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.au\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.au\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2239"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.au\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2239\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3293,"href":"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.au\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2239\/revisions\/3293"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.au\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.au\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.au\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.au\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2239"},{"taxonomy":"authors","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.au\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/authors?post=2239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}