We are still along way from the Hobbit filming but preparations have officially begun. With Peter Jackson this week confirming ‘still no funding’ at Comic-Con, people must be working for the ‘love of Tolkien’ in Matatmata. Hobbiton renovation photos have slowly started surfacing as the early work of preparing summer fruits and flowers for hungrey hobbits. We have seen published photos  from www.stuff.co.nz and  Red Carpet Tours have also sent some through to theonering.net.

The Hobbiton page is now loaded into the BestLordoftheRingsTours.com. We are progressing… with small Hobbit steps… with listing the best Lord of the Rings Tour. View Hobiton Tour information via the Hobbiton page link above…

Some exciting  news to come out of Hobbiton recently…

Ian Brodie, author of the Lord of the Locations Guidebook (includes all the best locations tour in New Zealand)  is moving on from his position as Director of the New Zealand Fighter Pilots Museum to take up a post with the Alexander family, in his recently created position as Hobbiton Media and Communications manager.

Still no official confirmation from anybody about filming actually occurring at the farm…

perhaps they are waiting for the Media and Communications manager starts work on the 1st September…

More Hobbit updates and Lord of the Rings Tour destinations to follow soon…

some exciting developments at Hobbiton… a recent lord of the rings tour passenger  visited Hobbiton yesterday and had this to say …

” I nearly died from excitement today even though all they’re doing is gardening. Basically putting in a shedload of hedges at the moment and doing something odd with a tree, they’re making Hobbiton much bigger though as there’s some boards up that apparently are locations of new hobbit holes to be built, they’re not likely to start building them back up til late this year, but still, HOBBITON!”

still no official confirmation from either the studios or Hobbiton… but one of our most hoped for guesses is falling into line…

the rebuilting process had us thinking back at the office… how much of Hobbiton do they need to rebuilt? Bilbo and the Dwarves spend little time there, besides the time inside Bagend that is. Is this a case of rebuilting Hobbiton for some classic Peter Jackson aptmosphere or will The Hobbit movie start with a few ‘life as a hobbit’ scenes?

Makes you wonder