....turns out, I could keep it up for about a month. Anyway its storming here so I'm going to finally update. Leigh Anne was here about three weeks ago and we kicked off her visit by going straight to Hobbiton, formally known as Matamata before Peter Jackson got his hairy little hands on it.
Jackson found the land by way of a helicopter ride. Before becoming Bag End, it was a prosperous sheep farm. He rented the land and lived in the main house for over 13 months, having all the dailies sent there from Wellington. When the shoot was over, New Line packed up all of the sets; however due to a wicked rainstorm they left some behind thinking it was too damaged to ever be used again.
That's when the sheep farmer's middle son, an accountant, realized he had the makings of a tourist trap.
Its a pretty surreal tour. A bus takes you from town out to the farm and around the land. The tour guide was freakishly knowledgeable, not only about the films but also about the family.
"That branch is where Frodo eats an apple in the first five minutes of the first film."
"To the right you will see Ed and his daughters, herding the sheep . Ed married his school sweetheart five years ago."
"Who wants to reenact the Hobbit dance?"
"Over there is a possum."
Apparently New Line sends out spies every once in a while to check up on the farm and make sure they are not playing movie clips or selling paraphernalia. Because we were American, the tour guide paid us extra special attention.
Anyway the whole tour gave me some great ideas about the Compound Tour we could have. All we need is a hook.
Hmmm... Compound tour.... Don't think that we can pull this off until after we have installed and used the network of underground survivalist tunnels.
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