“Fantasy is escapist, and that is its glory. If a soldier is imprisoned by the enemy, don't we consider it his duty to escape?. . .If we value the freedom of mind and soul, if we're partisans of liberty, then it's our plain duty to escape, and to take as many people with us as we can!”
New Zealand really is the gateway to Middle earth, and it was more amazing than I ever could have imagined. All the pictures below are from Wellington, New Zealand's capital, which they call the middle of Middle Earth. To be honest, all we did was walk around the city, but we continually found more and more amazing LOTR and Hobbit spots.
Here is the movie theater where all of the LOTR movies and The Hobbit had their world premiere. I went inside and had to ask the teenager at the concession stand if he worked the night of The Hobbit premiere. He did, and I was very jealous.
On a walking trail minutes away from the theater we found where Frodo and the other hobbits hid from the dark rider. Here's a youtube of the scene.
I'm crouching in the same spot where Frodo hid, however there's no tree with roots to hide me. unfortunately the tree wasn't real!
I had my husband go back and grab a rock from the trail as a souvenir. That's not weird...right?
Then as we decided to go to the Wellington museum that same day, we found this little gem inside. Three trolls from The Hobbit on display.
All around the city you can find enormous Hobbit advertisements This one was on the side of their post office building and featured Bilbo on a huge postage stamp. If you look closely you can see the dwarf's outlines on the side of the building. I read online that each silhouette is roughly twenty feet tall!
For a Tolkien fan like me, New Zealand was just a dream come true. Even their airline company got in on the Hobbit awesomeness. So to sum up New Zealand, I'm going to end with the picture below and the flight video from Air Zealand. Please watch it, you will not be disappointed.
Hey everyone, The Shapeshifter's Secret cover was nominated for a Whitney Award! The cover designer was Rebecca J. Greenwood at Cedar Fort, and she did an amazing job! Please vote for The Shapeshifter's Secret cover. I promise it LITERALLY takes FIVE SECONDS. All you do is hit the link below, click on The Shapeshifter's Secret, and then hit submit. That's it.
I'm sure if you vote you'll have good luck all day ;)
In the heart of New Zealand's north island you will find rolling, grassy hills, bleating sheep, and small, round, colorful doors. This is Hobbiton.
When Peter Jackson and his crew began looking for a location to film the shire, they flew in a helicopter to get a bird's eye view of the perfect spot. When they found the Alexander family sheep farm, they asked the family to sign a contract without releasing what movie they were filming. The Alexander family said yes, and the nine month construction began for The Lord of The Ring's set.
For The Lord of The Ring's films they built a simpler version of the shire and agreed to destroy the set after filming. Most was torn down, but a storm did prevent the crew from demolishing every door. When New Line Cinema decided to make The Hobbit movies, they came back to the Alexander farm and asked once again to use their land. The family agreed, but asked that this time they build more realistic, sturdy hobbit homes, and they also requested to keep the set up after filming.
See that mold splattering the fence behind us? It takes a lot of time to grow, time that the set designers didn't have. So what was the solution? Mixing blue and green paint with oatmeal and spraying the fence. Now that's clever.
Here's a hobbit garden with scarecrow. Below you can see the pathway by the large lake that leads to the Green Dragon Inn. I couldn't get enough of the little chimneys that dotted the green hills.
Bilbo's home. Remember that scene of Bilbo and Gandalf sitting on the front porch in The Fellowship of The Ring? It was shot to make it look like the sun was setting in front of them. Here's the problem, the sun sets behind his home. Solution? They filmed at sunrise and shot the dialogue backwards. Basically the end of the conversation was filmed at the break of dawn and the beginning of the conversation was filmed when the sun was higher. The overall scene is convincing, it looks like the perfect sunset.
That tree above the home is completely fake. They created the enormous plant, placed it next to Bilbo's home, and then Peter Jackson decided he didn't like the leaf color. Solution? They repainted every single leaf to a have a greener hue!
Every detail is incredible. Piles of firewood, little windows, handmade quilts, and clotheslines with hanging hobbit clothes all added to the charm of the village.
We got to enter this hobbit home, but I'm afraid I have bad news. There's nothing inside. Whenever you see a character enter into a hobbit home they're actually entering a studio in Wellington (New Zealand's captial).
Here's the inside shot. Dirt and rock floor, not much more. Although there was some cool pottery in the window.
Sam and Rosie's home. Yellow door, surrounding wildflowers, and a horseshoe fence latch. This was my favorite hobbit part of Hobbiton. I kept replaying the very end of Return of The King in my head. Here's a clip from Youtube of the scene. If you go to 2:30 you'll see Sam and Rosie enter the home carrying their two adorable children.
I have to admit I got a little thrill opening the gate and skipping over to their door!
Past The Shire and over the bridge you'll find The Green Dragon Inn. In The Fellowship of The Ring there's a scene where The Green Dragon burns in Frodo's dream. The building was actually set on fire and destroyed. When they came back to film The Hobbit,the inn was rebuilt and is now a functioning pub.
Second Breakfast!
You shall not pass!
I know that was a lot of pictures, but I'm guessing that if you made it to here you probably enjoyed them. Thanks for stopping by. I think I need to go have second breakfast before starting a Lord Of The Ring's Marathon :)
