On our way to Rotorua, we stopped at Hobbiton, home of The Shire. Located in the middle of a family owned sheep farm, it was chosen as the filming location for The Shire in Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit movies because when standing anywhere on the set, you can't see any 20th century structures in any direction. Which makes it the most beautiful place we went to in New Zealand. It was gorgeous.
Also, the party field fit the descriptions from the books of a round tree by a field with rolling green hills surrounding, so that also had something to do with the selection process.
If you ever go to New Zealand, go to Hobbiton. It cost $75 a person for the tour, but all in all that's the second cheapest tour we went on, and you get a free beer/cider at the end. At the Green Dragon pub, which doesn't actually appear in any of the movies but maybe would have in a panorama shot so it was built just in case Peter Jackson wanted to take a panorama shot. Because Peter Jackson is insane.
It's a walking tour, which I was not aware of but was pleasantly surprised to find out. They take you by bus from the nearest town, then on another bus into the heart of the farm and onto the set, and then you walk around the set. You can take thousands of pictures, go inside one of the hobbit-holes, and, like I said, drink a free local beer (I personally had a cider). It's especially great that it was a walking tour because then I got to run at the very fence where Martin Freeman ran and jumped over after the dwarves in The Hobbit. It took 8 takes to film that scene. I did it in one. =P
The coolest part was that the record number of photographs taken in one tour was 1800 pictures. That's crazy. The cool part about that is that if you break that record, you get to keep a sheep!!! You have to catch it yourself, but after a while the sheep gives up and lets you take it, so it's totally worth it.
That being said, I did not get a sheep. I only took 200 pictures at Hobbiton, which is still a lot.
But next time, I'm going to get a sheep.
After our time in Middle Earth, we drove in to Rotorua and checked in to our hotel, Distinction Rotorua. It was a really nice hotel, and we stayed on the top floor, in a room with a balcony and a nice view. The lady who worked reception checked us in at 7 pm or so, but she was still there when we woke up at 7 am, and was STILL THERE at noon when we returned after lunch! I'm pretty sure she's a robot; why else would she work all the shifts back to back? Does she sleep behind the desk? So many questions.
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