I am incredibly proud to admit that I am a total Tolkien dweeb. I have had many Lord of the Rings trilogy marathon days and intend to continue on this tradition once the third and final Hobbit movie comes out. As a child one of my absolute favorite books of all time was the Hobbit. I had it on cassette, had two copies of the book in English and one copy in Spanish. In fact, the Hobbit (embarrassingly enough) was the first book I ever read in Spanish. Now then, with all of this now blatantly out in the open, I have to admit that Hobbiton was on the top of my list when it was decided we would be making our way to New Zealand for a road trip.
New Zealand is a breathtaking place with an astonishing amount of things to do (especially for such a little island). Hence, we had carefully planned our trip to ensure it would be possible to see as much of the North and South islands as possible. Therefore, when there happened to be a cyclone blowing through the North Island, surrounded by torrential rain on the day of our Hobbiton tour there was absolutely no chance that we were going to miss it.
Hobbiton is by no means inexpensive. Probably one of the most expensive stops on our trip it cost us $75 (NZD) each to enter. Having arrived, we parked our car in a large parking lot, smack-dab in the middle of nowhere with not a single hobbit hole in sight, and bought our tickets from the visitor's center. With rain swirling around us and pockets turned out to pay for the tour we quickly began to wonder if our long awaited adventure was worth the wait. The large coach bus drove us through farmlands as the rain created its own unique rhythm to entertain along with the tour guide. 
We arrived on location, where we were happy to find a building stuffed to the gills with massive umbrellas for visitor use and otherwise naught but hills of grass. Following our tour guide precariously along a dirt path through an opening in the hill we were astonished by what lay on the other side. We had just walked through the passage where Frodo surprises Gandalf in the first film and emerged to find ourselves in the entrance to the Shire, gawking up at the stunning town of Hobbiton. Even through a veil of rain the mythical town is shrouded in an air of magic inspiring even the not so enthusiastic visitors to smile. 
Umbrellas in hand (more to carry us away then protect us from the rain) we made our way past 44 hobbit holes, the massive field where Bilbo celebrates his eleventy-first birthday, and all the way to the Green Dragon for some warm food and a pint of the Shire's finest. However, despite the gravity defying rain and spine chilling temperatures willing you to the Green Dragon at the end of the tour, the tour offered more than a warm hearth awaiting you with a cold pint. Our guide "Phoebe" was fabulous fun, providing an incredibly entertaining tour despite the gloomy day, educating us on loads of facts about the filming and the set. In addition to her wealth of knowledge and fun personality, she seemed to have this magical ability to make the rain subside at the best photo ops giving us a brief moment to snap umbrella free pictures and making her the wizard on set. The highlight for me was two hobbit holes in particular, Bag End (home of Frodo & Bilbo) & Sam's home (which you see at the end of the third Lord of the Rings film), both of which brought vivid images from the films to mind making it easy to imagine you were really in Middle Earth and Frodo himself could step out of the door at any moment. Sitting in the Green Dragon at the end of our tour, enjoying a tasty pint and some scrumptious pumpkin soup I could not help but feel I was lost in a dream. There I was, sitting in the shire, glancing out on Middle Earth through a window and above all the clouds that were trying to rain on my parade. Sun, snow, rain or cyclone. Tolkien fan or Tolkien stranger. Hobbiton is a must see location while travelling through New Zealand's North Island.
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