Hobbiton (The Shire movie set), Matamata, New Zealand

Had a chance to visit the Shire this last weekend. Skies were overcast so I played in LR5 a little and gave it a Mordor effect till they cleared up later

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Pretty cool. Is the set just there abandoned and anyone can walk in?

That's so cool, what a treat to be able to walk around there.

They permanented the buildings using real building materials when recording the Hobbit, to allow people to come and visit.

The original buildings from TLOTR used styrofoam and similar temporary materials and was dismantled after the recording.

That's great! Too bad about TLOTR set but this is great. Excellent shots!

Thanks- This is as stated above the sets built for the Hobbit. Its pretty amazing that they have been doing tours on the site since 2004 and that was with the original Styrofoam sets which looked no where near the quality of these. Peter Jackson was so impressed that so many wanted to see the set, he and the land owners struck a deal and these were kept up and actually constructed as if to be lived in. The details are amazing- right down to the doorknobs and windows. As a special not- the Oak tree atop of Bag End isnt real- completely hand made of steel, rubber and over 100,000 hand placed leaves. Jackson was a perfectionist and it shows in these sets- simply amazing.

They are only for external shots only- the interior shots were done at studios in Wellington. The hobbit holes came in two sizes. One for when the ring wraiths would come buy to give prominence to the the size of them and the second set was so the actors could look proportional to them. They were casting for the Hobbit the last time I was down here in 2010 and were looking for 5.3" folks. hairy feet and chubby cheeks were a plus

Thanks for sharing. Planning a trip for next year. Would this location be assessable during winter months?

Very nice and interesting set of images.

Great series, thank you for the explanetion about the set.