How does the real New Zealand differ from the world of Middle Earth from The Lord of the Rings? Come separate fact from fiction and explore a "typical" town on a "regular" day in New Zealand with Mike Matthew, Trip Experience Leader on Pure New Zealand.
While New Zealand is not, in fact, Middle Earth (as Mike playfully explains in his video), its appearance in the Lord of the Rings movies has had lasting impacts on its identity. We asked Mike to tell us more about his country’s connection to the film industry—and about Hobbiton, which is a popular activity for travelers in their free time.
O.A.T.: What advice do you have for travelers who wish to visit Hobbiton during Pure New Zealand, and what typically surprises them most?
Mike Matthew: For those who don’t know, Hobbiton is a movie set for parts of the Lord of the Rings (LOTR) movies. If you haven’t seen the movies or read the books, LOTR is basically a story about a few freaky little people called Hobbits, who go on an epic hike to destroy bad jewelry. It’s set in a world called Middle Earth and it was filmed in New Zealand.
First, I have to explain that Hobbiton is not part of any of our O.A.T. tours. However, there are travel days where we are generous with our free time and give our travelers the opportunity to pace themselves with a well-deserved rest, or to go on an adventure. It's one of our recommendations for a fun activity, and that's how we maintain balance. Giving you free time to explore things that interest you. Then afterwards the shuttle drops you off to a home-hosted dinner with an inspiring indigenous Maori family—boom!
What typically surprises our travelers when they step onto the actual LOTR movie set is that it’s all completely fake, but also extremely convincing and cute. Everything has such an incredible attention to detail. There is even an opportunity to go inside a hobbit hole, which is so well crafted, authentic and rustic looking. Even though it was only made last year.
O.A.T.: What makes Hobbiton such a special tourist destination compared to other film sets worldwide?
M.M.: I visited the Harry Potter Film set in London, which was definitely a movie set, with scaffolding and different scenes scattered around a giant warehouse. The set was crowded, with large waves of people wandering through.
Hobbiton is a more intimate experience, with guided tours in smaller groups of 40. The set feels like being in The Shire itself. With round doors into underground houses, smoking chimneys, actual veggie gardens, and a pub serving real beer and cider, it creates an authentic experience. They wisely avoided the Disneyland approach of adding freaky costumed characters, and focused on creating a beautiful expansive landscape with a charming medieval style village. A piece of Middle Earth on Earth.
Plus, its location in New Zealand, or should I say Middle Zealand? The location beautifully blurs the line between New Zealand and a mythical place. Especially since New Zealand itself already feels epic and mythical. Hobbiton is just so Kiwi. It’s on a sheep farm, and the local farmer came up with the idea of turning it into a tourist farm as well. Tourism is the second biggest primary industry in the country, so basically it’s totally authentic to who we are.
O.A.T.: Beyond Hobbiton, which LOTR filming location do you find most interesting to visit with travelers?
M.M.: Well, it's definitely got to be Milford Sound. In the X-Men Origins movie there is a huge waterfall where Wolverine’s Hugh Jackman jumped off naked. That's, uh, that's something different. I do my reenactment when we get there. But then the boat has to turn around and pick me up and it gets inconvenient. So I don't do that anymore. [Laughs] Oh, and in LOTR they used the same location as they sailed into the sunset at the end of the last movie, but that’s far less interesting.
O.A.T.: How has the film tourism enhanced local communities and businesses?
M.M.: Well, Lord of the Rings kind of put New Zealand on the map, you know. Because before that most people thought we were Tasmania, just like it says in my video.
They still don't really know. Some people still think that this is Middle Earth. I think a lot of business has come our way through tourism. Every time one of those movies came out, people would ask, "What is that place? I have to go there." You would think the dragons and trolls would put them off, but then we all like a bit of danger.
It's also brought about a boom in the film industry here, because Lord of the Rings was kind of the first big blockbuster movie that was made outside of Hollywood. Period. I don't actually know what a "blockbuster" means, but basically, this was the first full scale special effects movie outside of Hollywood that did well. Many blocks were busted.
O.A.T.: Which film location has changed the most since filming, and how?
M.M.: Hobbiton, because they did it up. They made it amazing. To begin with, it was just some cutout boards to mark where the hobbit holes should be, then they digitally added everything. It was totally fake. Then when they made The Hobbit movies, they got Wetta workshops to build the set so that it looks real and will last 50 years. The best film set and prop making company in the world took two years to put it all in. Then last year they built an actual hobbit hole underground that you can go into. It’s insane, in a geeky-cute kind of way.
O.A.T.: What’s your favorite "behind the scenes" story about the films that you share with travelers?
M.M.: I have a friend who was one of the stunt men in LOTR. I asked him if there was any scene in the movie where I could say, "That’s my friend Cam." Apparently there is a 20-second scene where he appears about 10 times playing different characters. First, he’s a troll cranking up a catapult. Then he’s another troll loading a huge rock. He also plays a small orc who accidentally gets loaded onto the rock. Finally, he's an orc with a big hammer who launches the rock (with himself on it) through the air, before playing half a dozen different men getting killed when the rock hits the castle wall.
O.A.T.: How has New Zealand embraced its connection to Middle Earth while maintaining its own identity?
M.M.: Very badly. Well, basically, I'm an elf. Most of my friends are hobbits or dwarves and there’s more than a few orcs around. I mean, just take our largest city Auckland. It’s surrounded by mountains, just like Mordor. It’s got volcano issues, just like Mordor. There’s a ruddy great tower in the middle, just like the Eye of Sauron in Mordor. And it's literally called Ork-land. So it's clearly full of Orks, just like Mordor. Auckland literally is Mordor, the bad place in The Lord of the Rings movies. So I think we're actually a bit confused about that one, to tell the truth. That’s why I made the Middle Zealand video: to highlight that the two do blur a little.
Or to put it another way, lots of Kiwis don’t care at all about "Lord of the What?" While others are raving fans.
O.A.T.: Can you share an example of how a film location has been integrated into local community life?
M.M.: Just take Miramar, the suburb of our capital city Wellington. Miramar Peninsula was basically a whole heap of empty warehouses that Peter Jackson, the director of LOTR, bought to host the special effects and post-production units for the films. The whole suburb’s basically Wellywood.
So Wellington is now a film set. That’s got to affect everyday life.
Experience a real Day in the Life of a New Zealand Maori tribe—and admire the scenery that brought Lord of the Rings to life— when you join O.A.T. for Pure New Zealand.
