“My PRECIOUSssss…” I whispered, clutching the Hobbiton map to my chest as our tour bus rolled by way of the luxurious inexperienced hills of New Zealand, straight to the Shire.

Ever since watching the Lord of the Rings trilogy method again in my school days (its epic 3 hour size was good for procrastinating from examination learning), I dreamt of going to New Zealand. There have been two issues I lusted over again then: Legolas’s attractive flowing blond mane and the dramatic snow-covered mountain peaks of New Zealand, the place the film was filmed. What I wouldn’t have given to take a seat inside a hobbit gap, hike to the height of Mount Doom, or take pleasure in a pint on the well-known Inexperienced Dragon pub.

Now, 12 years later, that dream lastly turned a actuality. And now I used to be seal clapping and gushing over each tree, blade of grass, and hobbit gap I laid my eyes on. Your entire 2-hour drive there from Auckland, we’d been listening to the film soundtrack on a loop, and now, after a brief 5 min bus experience from the studio entrance, I couldn’t imagine I used to be truly standing in entrance of Bag Finish, Bilbo Baggins’ home!

“Discover something unusual about that tree?” requested our information, a bubbly younger brunette in full hobbit uniform, pointing to the oak tree on prime of the roof.

I stared at its darkish inexperienced leaves, squinting on the brilliant solar rays peeking by way of. I’d been so busy gaping at Bilbo’s pipe, mendacity on the bench in his entrance yard and the well-known “No Admittance. Besides on occasion enterprise” signal that I hadn’t even observed it.

“The leaves aren’t shifting?” I replied.

“That’s proper,” stated our information. “They’re pretend! Peter Jackson had 40,000 synthetic leaves flown in from Taiwan. They needed to be individually hooked up by hand and spray painted to match the precise shade of inexperienced within the e-book.”

Geez, I assumed. That’s extra effort than I’ve put into something in my complete life! Seems the eye to element didn’t cease there.

“Right here’s one other enjoyable reality,” our information continued. “You see these timber over there?”

“Yeah?”

“Tolkien describes youngsters taking part in underneath plum timber within the e-book however Peter felt they might look too huge relative to the remainder of the set so he had apple and pear timber planted as an alternative. However to be true to the descriptions, he had the fruit on the timber be manually changed with pretend plums.”

OK. This man is both a genius or significantly OCD.

“They even had a delegated ‘frog transporter’ on set, whose solely job was to move the frogs (which needed to be flown in from Australia) to a different pond in order that their noises wouldn’t disrupt the dialogue within the movie.”

Okay that’s insane. I ponder if that job got here with well being advantages. Like for those who get warts or one thing, is that thought of a work-related damage?

“And eventually, have you learnt why this yellow hobbit gap door is way greater than this blue one?”

 “Why?”

“It’s a digicam trick. Gandalf is a wizard who must be towering over Frodo, the hobbit. However for the reason that actor Sir Ian Mckellen isn’t a lot taller than Elijah Wooden, Peter Jackson had the door behind Elijah constructed greater to make him look shorter and Sir Ian’s door constructed tiny to make him look big.”

And because of this for those who’re a movie nerd, you possibly can’t go to Auckland and never do a day journey to go to Hobbiton in Matamata.  You possibly can actually have a drink on the Inexperienced Goblin inn and not using a designated driver on the way in which again, as a result of they serve ginger beer. And right here’s one other enjoyable reality: the Inn was truly burned down for the scene in Lord of the Rings the place Frodo seems into the Mirror of Galadriel and sees orcs invading the Shire. They later constructed it again so it may very well be used as a vacationer attraction.

Again in Auckland, we stayed in a Residence Change, an enormous 4 bed room 2 toilet home in Devonport, a quaint bayside village only a 15 minute ferry experience from downtown Auckland.

Devonport, I discovered, additionally occurred to be the birthplace of singer Lordes and had spectacular views of Auckland once you climbed to the highest of the dormant North Head volcano (or “Maungauika” in Māori):

Renting a automobile was simple from Shore Leases and on condition that your entire inhabitants of New Zealand is just 5 million (1.7 million of whom dwell in Auckland), the highway weren’t too congested and different drivers had been basically, fairly chill.

Wanderer discovered it a bit unnerving to be driving on the other facet of the highway (though, for those who’re from the UK, you’d really feel proper at house) however fortunately our trusty Hobbiton information informed us a couple of lifesaving rule.

“Everytime you drive out of the country, assume ‘Passenger = Pavement.’”

This implies everytime you drive, preserve your passenger on the pavement facet of the highway. This was useful because it meant we didn’t need to assume too exhausting about which path to show and which facet of the highway to be on. Plus, it really works no matter which nation you might be in.

One other spotlight of our time in Auckland was assembly up with Joanne and Jon, a producer from Warner Brothers and a Hollywood director whom we met whereas engaged on a FIRE TV present. Previous to the pandemic, Jon had fallen in love with New Zealand after vacationing there along with his spouse and wished to maneuver there completely. After assembly us, he ended up promoting his home in L.A and doing the entire geo-arbitrage factor.

L.A costs are cray cray when you find yourself shifting to New Zealand to economize. I do know this as a result of grocery costs in Auckland had been atrocious! I assumed Melbourne and Sydney had been unhealthy, however this was a complete new degree.

Even after having been to Switzerland, Japan, Sweden, and Denmark, New Zealand nonetheless managed to sticker shock me at any time when I hit the grocery shops. The one different place with costlier groceries that we’d been to is Iceland.

Eggs had been virtually $1 every and even at that value, they ran out!

I used to be later informed by my Residence Change host that the explanation why the costs are insane and stock low is that the federal government just lately handed a regulation phasing out caged eggs, which brought about farmers to scramble (no pun supposed), resulting in a scarcity.

Pack ‘n Save ended up being the most affordable grocery retailer, however tough to get to with out driving. Fortunately, lamb was considerable and fairly priced however sadly, since I can’t eat lamb, I lived vicariously by way of Wanderer who declared it the most effective lamb he’d ever eaten.

Points of interest

Aside from a day journey to Hobbiton, sights we visited in Auckland included taking a ferry to Waiheke island (a chill place for biking and climbing), the Struggle Memorial museum (which is free on sure holidays like Anzac day), and a free strolling tour downtown. We had been additionally planning to go to Rangitoto, a dormant volcano you possibly can climb, however ended up operating out of time.

Our tour information gave us useful ideas like visiting https://heartofthecity.co.nz for a listing of metropolis occasions and shopping for tickets by way of https://www.bookme.co.nz to get reductions for sights throughout New Zealand.

She additionally informed us that New Zealand has 3 official languages: Māori, English, and Signal language. Their reverence for his or her Māori native tradition was additionally mirrored of their “silver fern” symbolism, a species of fern solely present in New Zealand, whose leaves mirror moonlight, making it a helpful information to navigate by way of the bush at evening.

Should you’re coming to go to New Zealand, you principally need to land in Auckland, so if you’re a Lord of the Rings nerd like me, don’t miss a day journey to Hobbiton when you’re right here. Auckland is extra of a spot to work, so for nature, we ended leaving visiting one other place in New Zealand, which for my part, is among the most lovely locations I’ve ever been to on the earth. We’ll speak about that in a future publish, however within the meantime, are you able to guess what that place is?

Right here’s how a lot we spent:

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