Filming locations in Matamata

Matamata is rolling green dairy country in New Zealand's North Island, and it became the Shire. The reason to come is the Hobbiton Movie Set, built on a working sheep farm for The Lord of the Rings and then, unlike most film sets, kept and fully landscaped as a permanent attraction. Bag End sits on its hill, the round hobbit-hole doors line the lanes, the gardens are tended for real, and the whole little world is two hours south-east of Auckland.

Hobbiton is visited by guided tour only, booked in advance, since you cannot drive into the set itself. Tours leave from a nearby ticket centre and walk you through the Party Field, past the forty-odd hobbit holes, and down to the Green Dragon Inn, where a complimentary ale waits at the end. Allow about half a day for the experience, and treat the guided format as a feature rather than a limit: the guides know which door belongs to whom.

The town of Matamata itself plays along, with a famously hobbit-styled information centre that makes a fun first or last stop. The set is the headline, but the surrounding Waikato is gentle, photogenic farmland that rewards a slow drive, all hedgerows, hills and grazing sheep that look very much like the originals on screen. There is no need to rush between things here; the pleasure is in how unhurried the landscape feels.

Plan Hobbiton as the anchor of a day and book your tour slot well ahead in the busy summer months, since popular times sell out. If you can, time it for a softer light morning or late afternoon, when the gardens glow and the crowds thin. With a little time to spare, the geothermal parks of Rotorua are about an hour further south, an easy and very different add-on to round out the North Island loop.