This week marks the third and (thankfully) final installment of Peter Jackson's "ehh...pic" follow-up to Lord of the Rings. For most people this just marks a mediocre end to a drawn-out prequel of a much better trilogy. However, it holds a significant importance to yours truly, because it marks the end of the contract I signed with Peter Jackson. Now you may be thinking, "I don't remember seeing him in any of those films?" Well shows how much you know, Mr. Imaginary Skeptic, I was Orc #6.
I wish that was the case, and it reminds me of a story. When Peter Jackson was filming the first Lord of the Rings trilogy, and he needed extras for the Battle at Helm's Deep, (which took place in a rock quarry on the outskirts of Wellington, New Zealand,) he went to the local hostels in Wellington and basically hired all the international travelers and backpackers he could find to become orcs, humans, and elves during the big battle scene. In fact New Zealand was so committed to doing what Jackson told them to do, they basically temporarily waived all the fees and visa laws that said international travelers weren't allowed to work in New Zealand. So, had I been in the land of the Kiwi at the time of the first trilogy's filming I could have been Orc #6, or Elf #18, or Dirty Human #1 (it was the part I was born to play.) So, whenever you watch the Battle of Helms Deep, remember you are basically watching a bunch of illegally hired backpackers swinging swords at one another to earn enough money to subside for another day on ramen noodles and peanut butter sandwiches... but I digress.
You see, what I am really referrinto is the contract I was forced to sign before taking a tour of Hobbiton. Back in 2011, before the first Hobbit movie even came out, I basically agreed to not release any photos or stories to social media or the Internet in regards to what I heard/saw on the tour, which was hard for me. During my trip I was keeping a blog of all my experiences and had to leave one of the coolest things I did completely out of it, but now that contract has expired and I am free to spill everything... Ha ha ha, you have no power here, Jackson the Grey. (Because after six of these movies you have really aged.) That actually reminds me of another story.
So back in 2011 when I was spending my lost year journeying across Australia and New Zealand, I couldn't pass up the chance to take one (or three) Lord of the Rings' tours, one of which was my trip to the actual set of the Shire. Now, during most times of the year the filming location is not much more than an empty field with white cutouts representing where the hobbit holes had been built into the rolling landscape of a local sheep farm. However, I was lucky enough to arrive at a time when Peter Jackson had a stomach ulcer (because trilogy-stress) and filming for The Hobbit had to be postponed for an additional three months, but the Shire set had already been fully restored to its former movie-like glory. There was even a team of two people whose entire jobs were to live on the Shire set and maintain all the vegetation while filming was postponed. That means I was allowed to walk through the full and complete Hobbiton set. It was like walking through the actual Sauron-damned Shire. There were pumpkins growing in the pumpkin patch, Hobbit-sized road signs, even authentic English sheep roaming the grounds. It was like stepping another world.
I got all the stories about the set as we walked through it. Peter Jackson was so meticulous with how everything looked he went a million over budget just making (yes, constructed by hand) the tree that sits on top of Bag End. He flew in a flock of English sheep, even though he was on a sheep farm, but for Jackson New Zealand sheep weren't authentic to Tolkein's vision. Say what you will about the Hobbit movies, but if there is one thing Jackson nailed, it was Tolkein's vision. In all the tours I took I learned about a thousand little details you will never ever actually see in the movie, but are there because the guy who directed The Frighteners was obsessed with making every minute detail perfect. In so doing he put New Zealand on the map. Maybe that is why the government bent over backwards to do everything in its power to see Jackson succeed... Which reminds me of another story...
Remember how earlier I talked about the government of New Zealand basically nullifying their laws about international visa-work restrictions, well that wasn't one isolated case. The Kiwis did that sort of thing for Jackson, a lot. For the Shire set the government basically sent a company of army engineers to clear land, build roads, and create infrastructure for Jackson's production company so they could access their set on this remote sheep farm in the small town of Matamata. In fact, the government even assigned a company of combat soldiers to Jackson to use as orc extras for close-up shots, because they were all big burly men who knew how to actually fight. (Which also means that when you watch the Battle of Helms Deep, you are also watching those backpackers get their asses kicked in by actual New Zealand soldiers... who I assume are taught to fight with sword and shield as part of their boot camp training.).. but I'm digressing again.
The set of Hobbiton was located on a private farm belonging to the Alexander family on a small little dirt road named Buckland. (That was the roads actual name before anyone from Jackson's team even set foot on the farm.) After filming wrapped up and Old Farmer Alexander got his farm back from those weirdly dressed movie people, (he had never heard of Lord of the Rings before or JRR Tolkein... I guess sheep herding doesn't leave a lot of time for reading?) that was the last he had expected to hear of the whole damned thing. Unfortunately, then the tourists started showing up. People started finding his farm and banging on his front door asking if they could see the Shire. So eventually he started charging them for rides on his tractor to see where the filming had took place. Then more people and more people came and eventually he got a bus, then another, and hired a tour guide, and even built a hobbit-shaped cafe and souvenir shop. Farmer Alexander may have been old but he knew how to capitalize on a good thing when he saw it. By the end the Alexanders had negotiated with Jackson that for the filming of the Hobbit Trilogy, part of their agreement was that he build a Shire set that could last and endure the weathering for longer than a few months. Jackson agreed and after he was done filming this time he left the set intact, which means that if you go there today you will be able to see the full set, much like I did, and not just some white cut-outs left to represent the hobbit-holes.
Of course, the Alexanders had Peter Jackson over a barrel filled with dwarves. He could do nothing but agree to their terms, because Farmer Alexander's farm was the Shire. In fact, when Jackson was scouting locations for the first trilogy he had originally expected to film the Shire scenes at separate locations. When he scouted the Alexander farm he was only looking for a big tree (the party tree) beside a lake, which he found, but he also found so much more. He realized that he hadn't just stepped onto the location of the party tree but the entire Hobbiton set. There was no need to find other locations because every hill and field he needed was in one spot. The Green Dragon Pub sat across the lake, Bag End sat high atop a hill, and even the surrounding hills were so high as to block out the rest of the modern world. Walking onto the set was like being transported to Middle-Earth. The experience and transformation was so complete that the actors themselves didn't have to try very hard to get into character.
There was a magical feel to the place, and for me, who was already on the journey of life-time, it felt as if I had stepped so far out of my own everyday world that I would not have been surprised to find myself face to face with a wizard or an elf. (Alas the only thing I came face to face with was a few Brits, some Irish, and the occasional Canadian.. which were all okay too.) Still it is an experience I will never be able to forget and now that I am free to talk about it, all I can really say is that, "You need to go." I don't just mean to take a trip to Buckland Road in Matamata, but a trip to New Zealand itself.
The place was beyond description. I hiked beautiful parks, traversed snow-capped mountains, walked through thermal vents, canoed with seals, climbed a warm-weather glacier, learned about Maori culture, and did so much more. It is a place worth visiting and if you happen to be in the neighborhood, stop by Old Alexander's farm and take the tour. It even comes with a free sheep-shearing demonstration, which was both cute and education... but I am digressing again. Yet, maybe sometimes that is the point of a journey like mine. There isn't always one path, and sometimes the digressions can be more interesting than the straight road.
It’s a dangerous business going out of your door. You step into the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there is
no telling where you might be swept off to. -Bilbo Baggins
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