Dec 22nd Leaving Rotorua I drove for about an hour leaving the pungent sulphurous aroma behind in return for the perfume of meadows yellow with buttercups and sweetly smelling of hay – cattle grazing alongside sheep and horses. My stopoff destination before Raglan was Matamata - a large town where the only things that matter are a) farming b) thoroghbred horses & racing and c) Hobbits. I saw plenty of evidence for the first 2 points but not so much Hobbity stuff, until…… I boarded a bus along with 20 others bound for a sheep farm in the hills around Matamata. Since 2002 this tour has operated providing cash for the farmer who allowed the movie to be filmed on his land. I calculated $1000 on the bus that day, so I’m guessing there’s money in them there hills…. or should I say: there’s money in them there Hobbit holes?The landscape is really Hobbity – obviously! the site itself has little left apart from about 18 holes which have boarded white fascias and tufted turfy clumps on each roof – one even has a chimney. The area around the holes was used for various scenes in the first LOTR movie which I can’t remember that well (must see it when I get home) – something about a party before Bilbo Baggins leaves with fireworks and dancing. Luckily there were no LOTR nutters on the bus but one guy who lived the whole experience with his camcorder glued to his face, slowly sweeping his lens across the landscape and up close to each hole, walking slowly and in circles a bit like Buzz Lightyear! I kept my distance, but I’m sure that when he watches his footage I will be in there somewhere making silly faces and obscene gestures (only kidding!). As a visitor to the site I was able to use my imagination to .. well imagine… the movie being made. I got to stand inside Bag End and in front of it, and meet some sheep. The sheep were nice. I told them they should sue the farmer for a share of some of the profits since they were made homeless for 4 months during filming and if that wasn’t bad enough, they were considered not ‘Hobbity’ enough sheep for the film, so other sheep were brought in for the filming. If I were one the ousted sheep I would feel pretty peeved, not to mention distressed that my sheepness wasn’t sheepy enough for Peter Jackson. Anyway, they didn;t seem too bothered by the advice I gave them and chewed on the grass staring vacantly into the distance – or maybe they were calculating the total value of a legal case based on unfair discrimination, backpay, relocation compensation and mental cruelty……… ?Anyway, I did enjoy the trip, and recommend it. When I asked if anyone had ever done any wierd stuff on the site, the guide told me that once a group turned up dressed as Hobbits with a tape machine and spent the whole time just dancing on the meadow below the holes whilst another German guy over 6ft tall arrived dressed as Bilbo Baggins and refused to leave staging a sit-in at Bag End – he had to be forcibly removed! The people on my bus that day were more like sheep than the sheep in the meadow, and were quite happy to be herded on and off the bus as instructed, all without the need for a trained working dog – amazing!It was after a brief coffee stop back in Matamata that I drove onward into Waikato and headed for the coast of Raglan for a 2 day stay before Christmas.
