The birthplace of LOTR – Hobbiton and Wētā Workshop

When Steph proposed a big trip to New Zealand, I had two conditions. One was that she watch the original Lord of the Rings trilogy extended edition, and that we visit Hobbton. This post is the results of those demands. You can see the happiness in her eyes from this visit.

Fun facts about Hobbiton:

*It’s the largest movie set in the world, bigger than the sets of The Ten Commandments and Its a Wonderful Life

*The first version was built by the New Zealand military and then torn down after filming ended

*It was fully rebuilt 10 years later for the Hobbit trilogy, with customizations done so it could be left up as a tourism site

*Hobbit doors were built at different scale sizes to make characters look smaller or bigger

*I blatantly stole the line “I’m going on an adventure!” from this movie series

*There were 44 homes created, but only two you can actually go into and it was only opened in the last year with the help of set designers from Weta Workshop

*It was chosen for the land size but specifically because of Peter Jackson’s request of “a large tree to dominate the landscape”

The imagination of Wétá Workshop

After enjoying a hobbit size dinner, the next day Steph and I flew to Wellington, the capital of New Zealand and visited the Oscar winning special effects workshop.

While touring we weren’t able to take many photos due to confidentiality for upcoming projects but we saw multiple creatures and weapons from LOTR and other sci-fi movie franchises.