“It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no knowing where you might be swept off to.”
Tom: Back when I was in 6th grade, I found this dog-eared paperback book at school one day while browsing the library shelves. From the cover I could tell it was a sequel, so I checked out the recap at the beginning. I was immediately fascinated, but also a bit bewildered, by the grand themes and sweeping arc of what had already transpired in the story. That book was the Return of the King. It would take me a couple years before I could find a copy of the Fellowship of the Ring, the first book in the trilogy, so could begin reading The Lord of the Rings from the start.
I think I’ve read LOTR maybe a dozen times (so far).
Of course, when the movies came out that was a big deal in our family, and we were there on opening day for all three. Near the beginning of the first film, just after they set the grand stage, we get to see a bit of the village of Hobbiton, as Frodo greets Gandalf upon his arrival. As we saw more of Hobbiton, we just looked at each other with big smiles and laughed out loud—they nailed it. They made Hobbiton look just like we imagined Middle Earth would.
So, in Matamata, they have preserved the movie set from the Hobbit. The Hobbiton set from LOTR wasn’t built to last and was removed after filming, but they rebuilt it in the same place for the Hobbit trilogy which followed shortly after—this time with an eye for keeping it around. They have also added a bit at the site, including a replica of the Green Dragon Inn.
We decided to go for the evening dinner feast, and it was well worth it. For a few hours, we were plopped down in the middle of Middle Earth. Our guides and fellow visitors were great, the attention to detail was amazing, and the stout beer at the Green Dragon was remarkably good!
Rob: My Lord of the Rings story is really about my dad. Some of you know he passed away earlier this year–one of my most cherished memories of him is reading The Hobbit out loud. We lived in Puerto Rico and at the time there were only two TV shows in English: MASH and Emergency. To fill the evenings, Dad would read books to me and my sister, The Hobbit being one of them. I think he started the Fellowship of the Ring, but we ended up moving back to the mainland before he finished.
He never lost his love for the story, and one of my annual Christmas gifts to him was that year’s LOTR calendar. And that love of the story still goes on in Nathan.
I don’t know that he was a huge fan of the movies (how could they leave out Tom Bombadill!!), but I could hear his voice reading the description of Hobbiton as we walked through the gates. I think he would have loved it as much as we did.
Yep, we went to Hobbiton 
Hmm, where’s the Gaffer? 
All depends on your perspective 
Nobody home, might as well wait here 
Looking down at the Green Dragon 
Surely they won’t mind… 
A (small) portion of the feast 
One of many Hobbit holes 
…and another one 
yup, there were lots more 
Keeping up with local events 
They like to stay busy
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