We had an enthusiastic guide who made this a fun and very informative visit. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Be warned however, if you are making your own way to "Hobbiton", it is not easy to find even with a Sat-Nav.
In 1998 Peter Jackson found the Alexander farm during an aerial search of New Zealand to be a suitable site for the Shire scenes in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. The farmer, though pleased to hire out his property, insisted that on completion the film company remove all traces of the film set so that he could continue farming. Bad decision! The farmer didn't realise how popular the films became & was fed up turning away hordes of disappointed visitors as there was nothing to see. So when subsequently the film crew returned to film the Hobbit trilogy, the farmer insisted that this time all the structures were to be permanent.
I think the farmer now gets more income from his movie-set tours than actual farming. You can see this in the top photograph on this page. New Zealand was in the middles of a drought while we were visiting and the film-site part of the farm was well watered & green compared to the rest.
The large oak tree in the picture on the left is artificial. So are the 200,000 leaves on it. Apparently Peter Jackson didn't like their shade of green on first seeing it & insisted that they all were repainted by hand a different shade.
The Green Dragon is a working pub. and even serves decent ale.
