Middle Earth set for film return

MARK TAYLOR/ Waikato Times

ON SET: Tour guide Benji Olesen gives a demonstration for a group at the Hobbiton site.

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Tourists at Matamata's Hobbiton will soon see Middle Earth come to life before their eyes as the movie set is restored for the filming of The Hobbit.

Hobbiton Movie Set and Farm Tours managing director Russell Alexander has negotiated the right to continue taking tour groups as the set is recreated – possibly right up until filming.

Sales and operations manager Henry Horne said people would see a live set as it was created. "Even for someone like me – a tour guide – I've only ever seen it as it is. Seeing the hobbit holes starting to be recreated – that will be very exciting."He was unsure what restrictions might be placed on visitors but was confident they would get a good view of the site.

It's not known when filming may start on New Zealand locations but Mr Horne said he understood it would take most of next year to create the set for the movie directed by Guillermo del Toro and produced by Peter Jackson.

Already gardeners contracted by the film company New Line Cinema have begun work, which includes planting orchard trees and hedgelines. More hobbit holes appear to be planned as several boards have been placed on a hillside next to the present hobbit holes with painted red circles.

The Waikato Times couldn't have chosen a worse day to visit Hobbiton on Wednesday as driving rain had sheep huddling in hobbit holes and strong winds turned umbrellas inside out. The site on Buckland Rd, 10 minutes outside Matamata, usually hosts six tours a day. The hardy tour group included an American, two Chinese and a German couple.

A bus took the party on a 2.5km drive to the back of the Alexander farm where New Line Cinema owns a 3ha film set. Guide Benji Olesen said the site on the Alexanders' 500ha sheep farm was spotted by Jackson on an aerial search for locations for Lord of the Rings in 1998. He loved it because of its rolling hills, fantastic views and a nearly symmetrical 175-year-old pine tree in front of a lake which was to feature in the trilogy as "the party tree".

Mr Olesen said the only sign of human activity in all directions was a distant haybarn which was painted brown and dressed up as a tree for the movies.

He described the extraordinary lengths Jackson went to keep authenticity such as covering native trees with branches from beech trees and buying an oak tree to overlook Bag End. It was cut into pieces, numbered and bolted together then covered with 250,000 artificial leaves from Taiwan. Trees and hedges were constantly transplanted throughout filming and injected with hormones to keep them looking healthy.

Mr Olesen showed the group the 17 remaining hobbit holes including Bilbo and Frodo Baggins' home Bag End – the only hobbit hole created in full so a crew could occupy it and film outwards over the village.

It is just a bare wooden room – the filming of scenes inside Bilbo Baggins' home was done in a studio in Wellington. German tourists Christopher Tragbar and Susanne Egyed from Stuttgart had travelled from Rotorua to see Hobbiton as they neared the end of a four-week visit to New Zealand.

Mr Tragbar said having seen the movies they wanted to see the film set and were impressed.

- © Fairfax NZ News