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The Hobbiton filming location is situated on private land on a sheep farm south of Matamata, a small town close to Hamilton in the northern central part of New Zealand's North Island.
Follow Hinuera Road out of Matamata - Hinuera Road runs parallel to National Road 27, on the right side of the railway - then turn off to the right into Puketutu Road, which leads to (aptly named!) Buckland Road.
If you follow Buckland Road you will eventually pass a picnic site on the left, which offers a beautiful view into Piarere valley with its stunning limestone formations.
The entrance to the Hobbiton farm is a little further on, to the right.
It should be stressed, though, that the site is not visible from the road - all you can see is a bit of the road that was built for the filming, and one of the set's car parks in the far distance.
The location itself is completely screened from the outside - and I would not recommend anyone to attempt to trespass!!!
Tours to the set operate from Matamata - they can be booked at the information kiosk on the eastern end of the main street, close to the railway crossing.
The cost is NZ $ 50 - and it is money well worth spending.
You will be taken to the set and returned to the information kiosk (shadowed parking is available at the kiosk).
The tour takes approx. 2 hours - so it allows for a leasurely stroll over the location, and the tour guides are great sources of information and very willing to answer questions and go off on side tracks, triggered by your questions!
Essentially, practically all New Zealanders are huge fans of the movie, and those tour guides are certainly no exception - at least the one I was with!
Tours depart several times a day, at the time I was there (in May) there was one at 10 am, one at 12.15 pm and one in the early afternoon. Apparently the number of people on the tour varies greatly, I got lucky and had to share with just 4 other fans!
It is possible to take unrestricted fotos on the set, including of the remains of Bagshot Row which will only appear in "The Return of the King". (And no, they don't pay me for putting up the link and that information!)
The tours are courtesy of New Line cinema though, so tour guides will be extremely careful not to allow anyone to do anything that might infringe on the film company's rights - they might loose their hard-gained permission to run those tours otherwise!
Actually, according to the original contract, the set was supposed to be destroyed after filming - and would have been, if rains had not set in early, delaying the deconstruction of the site until after the first film was released.
When it became an instant international blockbuster, it dawned on the landowners what it was they had on their property, so they negotiated permission to retain the remaining structures (including Bag End) and run those tours, and they have just gained permission to also undertake measures to conserve the structures, which had not originally been built to last longer than a year!
As you can see on the fotos, all the decorations, the gardens and plantations are gone, but most of the hobbit holes are still there, and so is, of course, the party tree and Bywater lake. It is far from being a touristy site in the mass tourism sense, and I respect the decision of the people involved, not to milk the site for all its money's worth - but at the same time I do hope that the structures will be conserved, and that perhaps eventually part of the site might be turned back into something closer to its condition during the filming. It is not just a film set - it is a cultural treasure almost like an archeological site in one of the "old" countries, and New Zealand seems to feel a lack of sites of cultural interest - so hey, here you've got one, please keep it!
last updated: 10 January, 2004