The picturesque 1,250 acre sheep farm and Hobbiton Movie Set in Matamata, New Zealand are by far one of the most beautiful places I have visited, next to the Great War Of China in Beijing. My girls are indeed lucky to be able to visit such a beautiful country at such a young age!
We set out to travel to the Hobbiton Movie Set very early in the morning. After a 2-hour road trip by car, we stopped at Matamata for lunch. We bought some fast food and stopped at a park to have a quickie. Then headed to the Hobbiton Movie Set, featured in The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit films.
As the bus drove us up to the Hobbiton movie set, we were all gushing over the adorable little lambs wandering around the idyllic rolling green countryside. The bright blue skies along with the vastly lush green farms spread on both sides of the road were a sight to behold. I could not believe what I was seeing and where I was. It was so surreal. The entire farm and the Hobbiton Movie set were just magnificent.
While waiting for the bus to arrive to bring us to the movie set, I quickly snapped a picture of the cafe and the bus waiting area…
The below two picture were taken on the bus, on our way up to the movie set, through the glass window. The white dots all over the green farm are fluffy white sheep. There are over 13,000 of them in the private farm!
After a 15-minute bus ride, we reached the Hobbiton movie set. We were lucky again. It had been raining everyday since we reached Auckland but the day we went to Rangitoto Island and again when we went to Hobbiton, it was bright, clear and sunny! But it was far too sunny for me. Again, I had to open up an umbrella (provided by Hobbiton) and carried it with me throughout the 2-hour tour. Very troublesome indeed.
Every part of the movie set has an awesome view.
One of the trees here is a fake one, created by film director, Sir Peter Jackson. I’ll let you know which one later…
There were also pear and apple trees in the movie set. The one below is a pear tree. It was my first time seeing a pear tree in real life!
The tree below, known as the party tree was created by the film director. According to the tour guide, when the tree was completed in the first round, Peter Jackson did not like the color of the leaves. He ordered the leaves to be repainted – every single one of them!
One of my favorite scenes – the lake and the meadows, with beautiful colorful flowers and loads of lush greenery everywhere.
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