A pilgrim’s progress

THE HOBBIT With the country expecting a new wave of Hobbit-hunting visitors, Rebecca Nicholson gets in ahead of the queues.

THERE ARE three stories you’ll hear about The Lord of the Rings in New Zealand. The first is the tale of a wealthy man, a Tolkien fan from the United States, who asked the makers of the movies’ One Ring to come up with a costly gold replica, then hired a helicopter to fly him over Mt Doom, where he threw it into the flaming inferno. At least, that’s how they tell it in Wellington. In Nelson, it’s a woman, a spurned lover, who threw her One Ring wedding band into the mouth of the volcano. Then there’s the story of the ‘‘six-foot-three’’ German tourist who arrived at Hobbiton dressed as, well, a very tall hobbit, who felt so at home in one of the hobbit holes there that he squashed himself into it and refused to leave for 12 hours. In Auckland, they’ll tell you he was Belgian.

The Lord of the Rings has been big business ever since Peter Jackson decided to film his trilogy here, back in the late 1990s. Now, with the imminent release of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey – its Wellington premiere takes place on Wednesday – there’s another opportunity to attract Tolkien devotees.

People involved with Middle Earth-related tours talk wearily of copyright back-and-forths with the Tolkien estate and with New

The post-LOTR hobbit holes resembled a do-ityourself home improvement TV show project gone bad.

Line Cinema; it was, initially, hard for them to market anything local as an official Lord of the Rings experience. There’s very much a sense that the tourism which followed the films’ release took all parties by surprise, and they’re preparing for it properly this time.

The biggest name in the game right now is Hobbiton, a sheep farm that doubled as the Shire for both trilogies. It’s about two hours’ drive from Auckland, near Matamata; stop in any of the creaking cafes in the small towns along the way (‘‘Collect your Hot Mail here!’’ reads the proud sign on one) and you’ll bump into a minibus full of pilgrims on the same journey. If you’re very lucky, one of the lesser-spotted costumed devotees may make an appearance, though on a brisk early spring day you need more than just a cloak to keep you warm so we didn’t spy any Gandalfs.

Jackson’s location scouts saw potential in Alexander Farm’s rolling green hills, lake, and, crucially, large pines – one of which would eventually become Bilbo’s party tree. After filming was completed in 2004, the set was dismantled, before anyone realised that a massive opportunity had been missed. When it was rebuilt for The Hobbit, the farm fought to keep its hobbit holes.

The artwork on the sides of the minibuses that take people down to the main site still bear the scars of its cobbled-together past. The post- LOTR hobbit holes resembled a do-it-yourself home improvement TV show project gone bad, with plain MDF facades fronting holes to nowhere, and though those early visitors may have been disappointed they did get the option of feeding lambs at the end of the tour, a tradition that still stands today. Sure, you could survey a bit of grass where Elijah Wood once placed his hairy prosthetic feet, but in its original incarnation, these moments required Tolkien-esque powers of imagination.

These days it’s a far slicker operation, though there is a peculiar feeling to flying for 26 hours only to find yourself in a place that has been chosen for its resemblance to the Malvern Hills in England’s West Midlands. Then there’s the fact that the 37 hobbit holes vary greatly in size to accommodate the different heights of the actors playing hobbits and dwarfs at any one time. Oh, and that oak tree that sits majestically above Bag End? Its plastic leaves, imported from Taiwan, blow off in the wind, and have to be replaced every year or so because visitors keep pinching them as souvenirs.

So while it may feel like you’re taking a gentle stroll around a lusciously green film set, it can be quietly disorienting. Avoid going the day after you land, lest any remaining jet lag tip you over the edge. Perhaps that’s what happened to the giant German/ Belgian hobbit who claimed he had found his home there.

Hobbiton may be the main event for now, but Wellington is about to take over, renaming itself ‘‘The Middle of Middle-earth’’ in time for the world premiere of The Hobbit on Thursday.

Back in September, there was little sign of the mania to come, though it already drew on its LOTR history. We spent an afternoon on a Lord of the Rings Movie Tours minibus, along with a couple of hardcore Tolkien fans, who made Hobbiton’s gentle