Hobbiton

I am totally in awe at the New Zealand countryside.

It has many familiar parts - grasslands, subalpine forests, cattle farms, windy ocean beaches - and yet, there is something different that I haven’t yet put my finger on.

Friday was an excellent day for a hobbit visit! The weather was gorgeous. Our tour guide, Katie, was a recent college grad from Arkansas who immediately got on a plane to New Zealand as soon as she could.

So, the hobbit holes were cool but LOOK AT THIS ANT(?) DRAGGING A SPIDER.

Sorry to put the highlight up first...I’m sure most of you will be satisfied enough with that image, but for those who want the holes, here they are:

Can you find which tree is fake in the above image? (trunk made of fiberglass, leaves made of silk)

The oak tree above Bag End is not real! Sir Peter Jackson wanted to create a tree that was true to the story of the Hobbit, which took place ~60 years before the Lord of the Rings, so he had to make a tree that looked younger. To do so, he built a tree with 376,000 hand-painted leaves intricately sewn in to the fiberglass bark. When the leaves become faded, workers individual repaint the leaves. Looks pretty doggone real though, right?

Lastly, we topped it off with a choice of ginger beer, a dark ale, a lager, or a cider from the Green Dragon!