Trigger Warning: this post will be terribly boring to anyone
who is not a Lord-of-the-Rings fan.
The narrative then morphs tomorrow into, what kind of 64 year-old idiots would
go for a plunge on a 150 foot-tall mountainside swing set? As Lenny and Squiggy used to say on Laverne and Shirley, “Hello!!!”
The scenes of the Shire, the South Farthing, and Hobbiton
for both The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit movies were all shot on Alexander’s
farm just outside Rotorua, NZ. Before the filming for these Tolkien movies,
Alexander’s farm was a … sheep farm. Who would have thought?
There are still 4x as many sheep as people in New Zealand. But this is progress; it used to be 7:1. Anyway, here we are outside the most famous residence of all,
Bag-End, home of Bilbo and Frodo.
There are 44 hobbit houses here; but many are duplicates. Everything was built twice – once in large scale, for shots with actors portraying hobbits and dwarves; and once in miniature, for scenes portraying wizards and men.
Large scale
Small scale
Small scale
Even including miniature clothes on miniature laundry lines.
It was a little cold and rainy in the South Farthing, but that didn’t diminish our enjoyment.
Especially after arriving at Bag-End for Bilbo’s eleventy-first birthday …
And seeing the Party Field hung with lanterns …
And the Party Tree just begging for Gandalf’s fireworks …
With the anticipation killing us, the only thing to do was to head for the Green Dragon in the South Farthing for what we would call today “pre-gaming ….”
The Green Dragon featured what we would call today “craft beers ..."
The Green Dragon is a welcoming place, where everybody knows your name, be it Sam Gangee or Sam Malone.
So we warmed ourselves by the fire …
And ordered a couple of pints at the bar. A perfect ending to a perfect morning undiminished by the late-autumn rain and chill, thanks to the South Farthing’s finest.
Next up: we return to the modern world and the adventures
of the Rotorua Skyline Adventure Complex.
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