Peak behind the scenes of 'The Hobbit' with these iconic film tours.
J. R. R. Tolkien fans are often so devoted they look for traces of Middle‑earth™ in real life. If you fall into this camp, here’s some ‘The Hobbit’ film tours that will help bring Middle‑earth™ to life.
Visit Hobbiton™ Movie Set(opens in new window) for a guided tour of The Shire. The former film set comprises a millhouse, a Green Dragon Inn, and 44 hobbit holes. At the time of filming, those little round doors, so quaint and inviting, opened to nothing but empty space and film-set detritus. Since filming wrapped, the owners of Hobbiton™ Movie Set have renovated the interiors of the Green Dragon Inn and two hobbit holes on Bagshot Row, with the help of designers and illustrators who worked on the films. You can now stop in at the Green Dragon Inn for a Hobbit™ Southfarthing™ beverage and explore inside a hobbit hole to find hidden Easter eggs. You must imagine the rest: there are no people dressed as Hobbits, waving and smiling Disney-style, here (unless you count the occasional visitor).
Head to the Wētā Workshop(opens in new window) (Wellington) or Wētā Unleashed(opens in new window) (Auckland) for a look at how the films were made. For attractions that began not for the purposes of making money but simply to have somewhere to send fans who turned up to Wētā Workshop's studio, these tours have grown quickly to become a global phenomenon, ranked alongside Warner Bros tours. On a Wētā Workshop tour, you'll catch a glimpse inside the studio to see props being made for upcoming films. On a Wētā Unleashed tour, expect some light humour – mostly from ‘Jeff’, an orc-like animatronic that took 60 people almost a year to build but, going by appearances, a lot less time to script for jokes.
See the filming location for Trollshaws Forest with a Hairy Feet Waitomo(opens in new window) tour. Here, you’ll see a part of Aotearoa New Zealand that isn’t normally open to the public.
