On most recent trip to New Zealand I visited Hobbiton in Matamata… again.
I’ve been previously to do a tour but this time we were going for something special. We were going for a Hobbiton Feast!
You read right. A feast, just how you’d imagine it. A feast-like, feast. After the tour (which is fantastic by the way and known as the Evening Banquet Tour on their website), you head to the Green Dragon Inn for a few bevies while dinner is finished being prepared. Then there’s a grand reveal of the room. Think huge long wooden tables COVERED in food. And exactly the type of food you’re thinking. Roast chicken, Beef and ale casserole, roast potatoes and veges, whole fish fillets, slow cooked lamb shanks on bubble and squeak with gravy. Oh my life.
It even tasted as good as it looked! Right out of the scenes of The Hobbiton movie. It’s a very cool, special experience and they’ve done a fantastic job to make the atmosphere just as you’d imagine it. Roaring fire in the background, dimly lit. Perfect.
I almost forgot, there’s even a few clothing props thrown around that they let your know about after a couple of ciders! Hilarious, great times and well worth the price ticket.
Side note…. So while I was doing the tour I got chatting to one of the guides and he told me some of the best questions he’s been asked while on the tour. I was in hysterics (those poor, naive foreigners) so I thought I’d share here with you the best ones:
– How long ago did the native people leave? Meaning hobbits.
– How long did it take the farmer to realise there was a hobbit village at the back of his farm?
With 3-4000 people a day going through the tourist attraction in New Zealand’s north island of Matamata, it’s quite the lucrative operation and with good reason. I would happily go back to feast again.
