We left the Orchard House to take a much-anticipated adventure. And no, we didn’t need to run out of the house with a signed contract in hand. We had a quick lunch at Shire’s Rest to begin our journey.

Hobbiton, in its original form, was the set for first Lord of the Rings and then the Hobbit trilogy. However, nearly all of the set was reconstructed just for the tourist sensation. Can you guess which of the trees in this photo is complete fake? They even took down the leaves and repainted them so they looked as realistic as possible during the film.

There are forty four hobbit holes in Hobbiton. It is really, really difficult to choose which pictures to post. Some of them are very small, to give the illusion of someone like Gandalf being unusually our of proportion in the Shire. Others are “to-scale” to us, so that they seem like realistic proportions to the hobbits.

Not only is the set much larger than any of us expected, but the attention to detail was astonishing. The chimneys of the hobbit holes smoked like the hobbits were home, there was a fishing hole near the Green Dragon Inn with plastic fishes, and well, Bag End had the perfect addition to its entrance gate.

The walk through of Hobbiton took over an hour, through the meandering paths of the village, and over the gathering place where Bilbo gave his eleventy-one birthday speech under the Party Tree. The final culminating moment was a nice cold ale at the Green Dragon Inn, rebuilt after the first set was literally burned down to film the scene that Frodo sees in the Mirror of Galadriel of the Shire burning. Yes, Peter Jackson burned down a perfectly good pub for his attention to detail. Don’t worry, the only brew for the brave and true, is still from the rebuilt Green Dragon.

Our travels were not even over yet, for we had another two more hours to drive to Lake Taupo, our next lodgings. Lake Taupo would be our next headquarters for a few days to do some of the more touristy jaunts we have planned. It is a picturesque resort town next to a very large lake in an ancient volcanic caldera. Tired from the day’s journey, the hobbits had a much needed relaxing evening.

*****Written by Checkers and Laura*****

• New Zealand 2016-17