Glen and Lynnie Visit the Shire

Well here are some photos from our trip to New Zealand. After speaking at the Wesleyan Convention in Lake Taupo we headed north to the Bay of Islands. En route we stopped at Mattamatta where we took a tour to the Hobbiton Movie Set where all of the Shire scenes in the Fellowship of the Ring and The Return of the King were filmed. New Line Cinema did not allow the owners of the property who now run the tours to retain any of the design work on the hobbit holes and insisted that they be painted over in white, so they look a little different. The hobbit outside Bag End (above) is me.


This cute little hobbit is Lynnie O'Briensies. She's just had second breakfast and is looking forward to Elevensies, that why she's smiling.


This is the famous Party Tree where the Hobbits had a big party, Gandalf gave a fireworks display, and under which Bilbo announced his intention to move away from the Shire, slipped on the Ring and promptly disappeared!


This cute little Hobbit is of the tree hugging variety, and is known to be particularly attracted to the Party Tree.


I just love the symmetry of this photo and the way the lush grass grows down to the roofline. The grass in New Zealand is so incredibly lush and green as they don't suffer from any water shortages over there. Photos of our trip to the Bay of Islands will be posted as soon as I can get them developed and scanned. Watch this space!

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