"As green as it gets!" Matamata by MFAMILY

This region is the live image of what we imagine New Zealand is: green fields and loads of sheep.

Matamata since a few years has become known for having been chosen to represent the Shire, on the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy.

The film location was found from the air. A private farm nearby had the exact ingredients to become Middle Earth´s home of those little hairyfooted people called the Hobbits on JRR Tolkiens story.

What´s left of the Holes structure

All what went through during the film making was totally secret.
A great job was done to be able to put the lovely little town together.
A gravel road was build by the army to cross the farm so that the lorries could carry the necessary equipment.
Holes digged to support the front walls and doors. There are no rooms actually. The interior scenes were filmed on studio.
Gardens were planted. All the vegetables the Hobbits enjoyed eating so much were poisoned. Yes, this was the only way to keep rodents from destroying them!

Bilbo Baggins's main door

Bilbo's house had a room after all. In fact it´s front door leads to a small room, say about 4sq meters.
On a rainy day, like it was when we visited, it was a good shelter for a few minutes.

• Pros:A good explanation by the Tour Company
• Cons:On a rainy day, can't escape from sheep excrement on your feet
• In a nutshell:The only remains of LOTR film sets in NZ