Traveling Ninja Notes: Hairy Feet Hobbit Tour

After allowing a couple of days for my sister and brother-in-law to adjust to New Zealand time and weather, and see a bit of Taranaki, we headed out for some adventuring around the North Island. Our first stop was one of the Hobbit tours on this island. The tour location was just outside the town of Piopio, at the Denize Bluffs. The bluffs are part of a large family-owned sheep farm. Prior to the filming of the Hobbit movies, the official Hobbit site scout stumbled on their farm and asked the family whether they could use the bluffs in some of the scenes; the family agreed. What this meant for Peter Jackson was that he had a natural landscape to enhance his films. What this meant for the family was they had constant coming and going on their farm for months; they had to build parking lots, put up tents and construct extra fences to keep sheep away from filming areas; and they had to find ways to avoid nosey questions from a small community used to know everything happening with everyone.

We were the only members of the tour scheduled for the time we had booked, so we had the pleasure of a three hour personal tour from the lady of the farm. She explained that after the movies were released, her and her husband chose to allow tours on the farm once they realized how interested people were in viewing the site and learning about what took place there. I could not possibly relate even half of the information she shared with us, but will try to cover the highlights (mostly with pictures).

Due to special effects and the amount of scenery constructed in the Weta Workshop, a good portion of the movies was filmed in-house. But for the bits which were filmed in another location, the bluffs received the most amount of time. The troll and campfire scenes from the first movie in the Hobbit trilogy was filmed on the farm, as well as the moment when Bilbo found his sword, "Sting," and the start of the chase through the forest when the Wargs appeared. With the exception of a few rocks, the abandoned farmhouse, and a couple of shrubs, the scenery found on the farm was left un-changed in the filming for the movie.

Before we set off on tour, we got to play at sword fights and wielding Wizard staffs:

The bluffs, the backdrop for the abandoned farmhouse and troll scene (the actual Trolls were constructed in Wellington and filmed there in Weta Workshop):

The location of the farmhouse, which was made out of polystyrene

Erosion in the rocks from years of water run-off

The rock where Thorin went to sulk (I mean think) after a heated discussion

A neighbouring rock, which was not as comfortable as it
looked, but definitely made an excellent photo opportunity

The cave where Bilbo found "Sting" (the camera-men were reportedly laying on their bellies wedged under the lowest part of this giant rock, and used computer enhancements to make it seem as large as it appeared on-screen):