The following morning, we packed up and headed to Whakatane via Hobbiton to see the film set of the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit films.

I was truly impressed with both the countryside and the features of this magical place. We wandered down a long dusty road on a Hobbiton bus to the car park and immediately walked through the narrow stone walled pathway that is seen at the beginning of the first film.

From there, the hobbit holes just kept appearing, with many props and real fruit trees sprinkled all over the site. There is one tree that isnt real, but you wouldn’t know. It had to be smaller for the Hobbit films, which pre-datedthe Lord of the Rings, but were made afterwards - thousands of leaves are wired onto the polystyrene and steel structure.

It took about an hour and a half to walk round it all, taking many photos for the family film fans back home, before we came upon the Green Dragon pub where we were in for a real treat - beer, either ginger or real - a welcome finish to a hot and wonderful trip. Oh how envioussome of our folks will be. Pity Bilbo was away on another adventure, but you will see hobbits in the photos we took 🤣🤣