Hobbiton, 1

As students of this blog know, we first visited Hobbiton way back in December of 2008. It was a great experience, as minimal as it was, recounted here. In 2008, it was just the Alexander family, owners of the sheep station where Peter Jackson had built the Hobbiton set as seen in The Lord of the Rings, trying to cash in a bit on the notoriety of their land, with little or no encouragement nor support from the movie-makers. The set had been almost completely removed or destroyed, and there was little to look at except the natural features, an ersatz entrance to Bag End, the Party Tree, and so on. But it was still great.

When The Hobbit trilogy came to filming, Hobbiton had to be rebuilt, according to Jackson's exacting and faithful specifications, and, thanks to the Alexanders' persistence, New Line and others came to their senses and realized that Hobbiton, if left in place and treated with care, could be a serious travel destination. And so it is. For us, it was better than we imagined it could be, particularly with our guide, Michelle from Ottawa, whose knowledge of the books, the films, the Lore, film-making, and so on, was impressive.

Fellow Ringwaifs won't need any description to accompany my photos; it would be wasted on those who are not into the LOTR. So here they are, without narration, in this and the next few posts--a fraction of the couple hundred we took on our visit. If there's anything you miss, let me know--I probably have it!