Things to do at Hobbiton Movie Set

Hobbiton sits on the Alexander family's working sheep farm near Matamata, about 50 minutes from Rotorua by road. The 44 hobbit holes were rebuilt in permanent materials in 2011 for The Hobbit trilogy, replacing the temporary polystyrene set used for the original Lord of the Rings films a decade earlier.

You cannot walk in on your own: access is by guided tour only, booked through the visitor centre, and tours run on a fixed loop through the set finishing at the Green Dragon Inn for a included drink. A standard adult ticket runs in the low-to-mid NZD range depending on tour type and season; allow around two hours door to door once you count the shuttle bus in from the ticket office.

Farmland means mud after rain and full sun with no shade in summer, so footwear and a hat matter more than they sound.