No trouble, 20minutes of scenic drive but we did finally get walking through a beautiful redwood forest. The trees are huge and we walked over some pretty stunning ponds too, we couldn't work out why but they were crystal clear and seemed to turn everything under the water white so it almost looked almost ghost like. 
I think it's probably something to do with minerals in the water because it smelt of sulphur. We rushed up the hill, too quickly, trying to get away from the crowd and I was exhausted and hot by the time we got to the top but we were then alone. The redwood trees were only in the first little section of our walk but the rest of the walk was lovely, beautiful forest of green and lots of mud!!
Edd was keen to jump straight in the car after our morning activity because the next stop was hobbiton. There's been a few things I've learnt about Edd this holiday; 1) he doesn't like apricots!! 2) he's a huge Lord of the Rings and Hobbit fan!! There is a 3rd, I'm sure but I really can't remember what it is at the moment! 
Apparently he's read all the books, loves the soundtrack, which has been downloaded for our car trip, and has watched all the films + extras. Apparently him and Ben both love it and have watched lots of the films!! I need to check if Hannah knows she's marrying a hobbit fan before it's too late for her too!
Edd was like a kid in a toy shop and as we sat in the car park having lunch I was worried he was going to get indigestion! It was finally our turn to get on the coach for the tour and I was definitely not sure this was my thing. We were joined by a girl wearing a cape and another who started clicking away on the camera before we had really set off from the arrival centre. I was about to find out what a real fan was like!! 
The first question was how many people had read the books? (I sort of felt I could say yes because dad had read the hobbit to me as a kid!) half the hands went up. How many had seen the films? I think I was the only one looking around with both arms firmly by my side. Half way through the tour I had a panic as the guide started explaining a part of the film 'you know the bit when...' I had to explain that she needed to focus her comments on someone else as I was going to be a disappointment.
Considering I was very dubious about the whole experience I must confess I was very impressed. Even without having a clue what they were talking about, especially when they assumed everyone knew what 'bag end' was, it was very enjoyable. If nothing else it was a lovely walk through a stunning, cute village with beautiful gardens (they have 5 full time gardeners) and lovely 'cottages' also known as hobbit holes.
Now comes the interesting bit about the filming... They found the appropriate spot when they were on a scouting mission by helicopter and Peter Jackson decided this spot was his shire. They built the village out of polystyrene the first time in 1999 for LOTR (Lord of the rings) put it all up for the few days of filming and then took most of it down again. When they decided to film the hobbit they made a deal with the tour company and the farmer that it would be permanent for tourists.
The efforts they went to are absolutely incredible, apparently if there was ever a sheep in view they would have to call the farmer to get it out of shot. They couldn't risk having any wildlife fly into shot whilst filming because it would ruin the illusion of the hobbits being small so they had a specially trained eagle who's job was to fly around before every shoot and scare off any wildlife that may come into shot whilst filming!! They needed an oak tree about bag end so they found a fall tree from another farm and bought it, chopped it up and moved it, then stuck it back together on set. They then wired on silk oak leaves.
The fence is supposed to look old but in reality is only 6 years old so they have glued and painted lichen on (just wood chippings) but I couldn't tell even up close.
Every hobbit hole is different and stunning, the detail is incredible and each door opens into, well nothing, there's just a little space behind the doors for the actors to stand!
They wanted a shot of Frodo and Gandalf watching the sun set outside bag end but in real life the sun set behind the house so to film it they woke everyone up super early and filmed the sun rise instead.
Apparently there was a birthday party, bilbo's 111th I think! And the party in real life was all the casts friends and family. They served real ale but it was specially brewed and was only 1% so that the actors still managed their lines.
We wandered through the village taking lots of photos and then had a rest at the green dragon, the pub in the film which is now a real pub. We got a complimentary drink each and I let Edd have mine so he could have two of the special hobbit beers available for his beer app. He loved every minute!
We had about an hour left to drive and then we had arranged to meet our new friends (the English couple Dani and Alex, from last nights dinner) so we had to rush showers and dinner to meet them at the one pub in town. We had such a lovely evening, we all laughed a lot about how unsociable we all are as traveller these days and how Edd and I had been so keen to make friends with these two.
We have ended up following their itinerary after ours got muddled and we feel like they may think we're following them! We did consider joining them on their glow worm adventure tomorrow but it was far more expensive than the one we are doing and although we really wanted to do it as a little group of 4 we couldn't really justify it.
Dani and Alex fly home to England the day after tomorrow after 10 months away! I can't imagine how they are feeling it must be so exciting. They are then flying back here 3 years weeks later as they have caught the travel bug and haven't got enough yet!! They're only really going home for a wedding but I really hope when they do make it home permanently we stay in touch because we really got on well.
We have just made it back from the pub in the rain, Edd is fast asleep and I had to wake him from his nap to make the bed! We both really enjoyed tonight but I think I'm going to be feeling better of the two of us in the morning for some caving!!
No comments:
Post a Comment