“In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.” – So begins J.R.R. Tolkien’s first masterpiece, The Hobbit, and so began my happy tumble into Middle Earth as a child. After years of relying on the books, the movies, and my own daydreams, visiting Hobbiton brought Tolkien’s world to life.
There are hundreds of blogs and reviews covering the Hobbiton Movie Set Tour, so I’ll just keep this brief and add a few pictures of my own. Simply put, I loved it. Even J, who is not such an avid fan of Tolkien, meandered around the Shire quite happily (her favorite part was the Party Tree—she desperately wanted to climb it). The attention to detail is absolutely incredible. I loved all the autumn flowers, the hobbit-sized shirts hanging on the clotheslines, the signposts written in Tolkien’s handwriting… To sum up our afternoon in Hobbiton: we frolicked, we drank cider, we lost the tour guide, and I took entirely too many photographs. How could I not?
Distracted as I was with taking photos and looking around, I ended up missing most of the stories that our guide told. I do regret that a bit… but at the same time, I was just so happy to be there that the experience was perfect all the same.
So that covers our first highlight of the trip: Hobbiton (Day 4 of our New Zealand Itinerary). The next highlight is Day 5: Tongariro!
JapaneseWanderings 
Vivid narration supported with stunning pics.
I recently wrote on the similar topic & was glad to come across your post. It’s been more than 5 months since I visited this mystical place, yet I still get nostalgic every time I think about it. I can’t agree more with you, it truly was a scintillating experience.
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