19th/20th March 2018

Hello everyone, here comes the second-to-last post from my trip a bit late. 🗺

19/03/2018: On Monday, we drove from Wellington to Rotorua and because it was quite a long journey, we spent the whole day on the bus. We were so exhausted that we didn't take a single photo. The drive took us through picturesque landscapes, but sitting for so long is really tiring. So let's go straight to Tuesday! 😍

20/03/2018: Today, we drove from Rotorua to Matamata. That's where the Hobbiton movie set is located, the place where both the Lord of the Rings movies and the Hobbit trilogy were filmed. What a magical place and the tour was really interesting. We learned many exciting things about the filming and were able to take photos in peace with beautiful weather because we arrived at the set early in the morning before many visitors were there. Up to 3000 visitors come here daily to admire the film set! 😮 That's a lot of people. The film set as it stands now was built in 2010, although filming had already taken place there much earlier. However, after the Lord of the Rings films were completed, the sets were dismantled. Nevertheless, many tourists came to this location, so it was decided before filming the Hobbit trilogy to rebuild the set, this time permanently, so that visitors could come to the location afterwards. It took two years for Hobbiton to look so beautiful. Simply amazing how much love and effort went into it. Currently, there are still four full-time gardeners employed to take care of the film set. Here are some photos from this very beautiful day! 😍