Day 3 - For the Shire!!

Another good night sleep and good planing morning. Today we went on an adventure......... To hobbiton!!!!!! We left at 8:15 and got on the 10:00 hobbiton tour after a super quick coffee stop for pop (my grandad), mum and dad. My cousin Kieran was very sick today so both my cousins and their parents missed it. Hobbiton is in the middle of this huge farming land and we took a tour bus there. The bus driver was called big John and had been in the crew of The Lord of the rings films. Our guide was called Tobias and he was fantastic!!! So hobbiton is the actual set of hobbiton and is all made out of proper materials this time. So when they were filming lord of the rings they knocked down most of the set but when they were filming the hobbit the farmer that owned the land said the whole set had to be re built in proper materials e.g wood and stone instead of plaster board and polystyrene! So we saw all 44 hobbit holes some made to 90% scale some made to 60% scale and bag end was the only one made to 100% scale. The gardens were fantastic they had three good vegi gardens 5 full time employed gardeners and a flower bed outside every hobbit hole. None of the hobbit holes had insides because these shots were filmed inside a studio in Wellington. The tour finished in the Green Dragon which has had it's inside rebuild as close to the set in the studio as possible. We all got a free drink, I had a ginger beer and everyone else had an apple cider (which from what everyone said was very good). To eat Morgan, Dad and I got a hobbit pie each. Dad and Morgan had a beef and ale pie an i had a cold pork pie. All were well received. After this we did a bit of merchandising hoping to find a shirt for me and some tea towels for pop, but didnt have any success. There were no tea towels and no shirts in the right size for me. 

 On the way home we took a detour to matamata to merchandise again with no luck. After having a long rest at home mum dad James Marty and I went for a "stroll" around the neighborhood and found a nice native jungle with a great rope swing. Also we walked maybe a 5th around the lake on a board walk and then released it was beer o'clock and turned back. Dinner was good, cooked by the maddens (my cousins family). They cooked a Moroccan lamb salad. I had the Moroccan lamb without salads but everyone agrees it was a great meal. 

Sorry it's late I was a bit tired. 

Alastair