Rotorua – Hobbiton – Waihi. Day 9
Monday 31st March 2025
Day 9 Rotorua – Hobbiton – Waihi
Checked out of our accommodation at the Lake Lodge B&B and took a short drive along the lakeside before driving up to Hobbiton and the much-anticipated tour of the Movie Set for the 6 Lord of the Rings movies.
Despite all of the work associated with developing this movie set for the first 3 movies it was slowly decaying even though the owners of the farm had developed a tourist attraction where they bussed people out from Matamata to take them on a tour of the site. We were some of those tourists way back then in 2003 when we took the boys on our first ever trip to NZ. Since then, there have been the Hobbit series and the Hobbiton movie set was developed into a more permanent display so that after the filming was complete the site was handed back to the local farmer with a firm agreement in place whereby, he has now maintained and improved the site, developed an onsite café and gift shop called the Shire’s Rest. He employs dozens of people to conduct lively and informative tours for a period of about 2 ½ hours and finishing off with a drink in the Green Dragon. Since I visited the site in early 2020 (whilst on an SSAA work trip) they have further developed 2 of the Hobbit Holes and now visitors can wander through them, ducking our heads occasionally, picking up objects, posing for photos in Hobbit beds and around Hobbit dining tables. The gardens all look precisely as they should with lots of vegetables and fruits fit for a Hobbit, no less.
All of this for the total sum of 14 minutes on screen during the 6 movies!
We drove onto Waihi checking into the Goldmine Motel. Taking heed of the local advice and being a Monday evening (most places don’t open) we drove on out to Waihi Beach (10 minutes) for dinner at Flatwhite. It’s right on the beach and the food was delicious. Unfortunately, it closed on Tuesday and Wednesday, otherwise we would have dined there again.
And so it begins…. Geoff actually has to work the next 2 days. After some final polishing of his presentation and me ironing his day glo shirts it was early to bed.
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