Hobbiton, at Mata Mata New Zealand

A Hobbit's Sunday Brunch

Steps Towards Bilbo Baggins' Hobbit Hole at Bag End

The Very Unfriendly Note on the Gate

Samwise Gamgee's Hobbit Hole

Fishing in Hobbiton

The Veggie Patch

The Mill

The Mill

It wasn't something I expected because I didn't plan the trip. Also, I had understood that the film sets had been taken down after the movies had been made. It turns out that they had only been taken down after The Lord of the Rings. The movie sets constructed for The Hobbit have been preserved because the owner of the farm negotiated to have the sets stay permanently.

The place is actually a 500 hectares working sheep and cattle farm. It now runs Hobbiton tours as a side business - a very profitable side business. This is really what is meant by Reality is a Social Construction. Hobbits don't exist. They have no real existence. Yet, because everyone knows what hobbits are, real money rolls into Ian Alexander's farm by the truck loads. Whether hobbits exist or not is beside the point. It's what people believe.

It was a magical morning.