Hobbiton: A Place for Nerds and Know-Nothings

                Alexander’s Farm was “discovered” by an aerial search for suitable filming sites and after negotiations and purchasing the land, construction started in March of 1999. This was a 1,250 acre sheep and beef farm outside the town of Matamata, with no road leading to it. Sir Peter Jackson, plain ol’ Peter Jackson at the time, went to the Prime Minister of New Zealand and said how he was going to be filming the Lord of the Rings Trilogy and The Hobbit Trilogy there, and if he could please have a road built for the thousands of people who would now be employed at Alexander’s Farm. She said yes of course, I’m a huge fan of Tolkin and I’d love to be famous for helping to make this happen in my country (speculation on my part as to how this conversation went) so she sent the New Zealand Army to build a 1.5km road to the site.  

                And thus lead to the eventual creation of The Shire – the Green Dragon Pub, 39 hobbit holes made of ply and polystyrene, and an old oak tree that was cut into puzzle pieces, transported from Matamata, re-assembled with metal wiring, with tens of thousands of plastic leaves from Taiwan painstakingly attached one at a time to this Frankenstein of an oak tree above Bag End. Surprisingly, 40% of the people who tour The Shire have never seen the movies or read the books, and wouldn’t know a hobbit if it kicked them in the shins.  Apparently, many tourists visit simply to make their friends and family jealous, and for the ability to post photos on Facebook because if they didn’t and came home from New Zealand without visiting Hobbiton they would be humiliated and made to feel ashamed by their grandkids.

                After visiting the hobbit holes, you are treated to a drink at The Green Dragon Pub. The original Green Dragon was purposely burned down to the ground by Peter Jackson, still not a Sir at the time, because it made for good film. Why CGI it when you can set it alight yourself is always my moto!?! But they rebuilt it better than the original out of materials designed to last, and to fire code I assume, and now it’s a functional pub. The Green Dragon has two beers, one cider, and a ginger ale all brewed especially for them and that can be purchased nowhere else in the world except at that pub… and at the gift shop. Andrew tried the Hobbit Southfarthing Stout, and I tried the Southfarthing Amber Ale; both were quite good, and the perfect pick-me-up for that 9:30am tour we were on - #breakfastofchampoions!