Tucked away in a small town of New Zealand called Piopio is The Hobbit filming site called Hairy Feet Waitomo. The site is a private farm owned by a lady Suzie Denize who owns the lands and has made a business of giving guided tours of the filming locations.
Hairy Feet Waitomo is known as the location with the most screen time of any location in New Zealand. The film crew spent 8 months planning and a week filming with more than 500 people present to make the magic happen for “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey”. The owner Suzie had been there for the entire filming at the site and was able to recount and tell us stories from her time observing the set in action.
The property is in the Mangaotaki Valley which has a beautiful backdrop of the cliffs in the background. On the farm there are approximately 10,000 sheep and 5,000 cattle. There are sheep everywhere, including running wild on the road.
Suzie brought a flip book along with her as she recounted the location and exact scenes from the movie. She would show us an image from the movie then point to the exact location it was filmed. The location was also given away by identifiers such as rocks and tree branches . One of the most memorable scenes was where Gandalf gave Bilbo the sword “Sting” and Suzie pulled out a plastic replica of Sting for us to pose with.
My favorite part of the tour was through the forest where Gandalf, Bilbo, & Thorin encountered 3 trolls. The forest was so lush and green but had a very mystical vibe to it. There was an actor spike mark for Bilbo that was hammered into the ground and had been left accidentally by the film crew and now remains a relic.
In the evening we went to the Waitomo Glowworm caves. Glowworms are only found in a couple areas around the world - New Zealand, Australia, and Alabama, and Canada. The glowworms aren’t actually worms but rather larvae of fungus gnat which look similar to mosquitos. In Waitomo there are multiple caves that have glow worms and are considered sacred sites to the Aboriginal people. The caves had been taken by the government for tourism purposes in the 1900s but have since been returned to the Aboriginal people.
The tour was led by a Maori man who taught us facts about Maori culture throughout the tour. The most shocking was how Maori society is a matriarchy and males and females are treated as equals. The women are very respected as they are the ones who produce life. It also explains why in the hardware stores there were so many women working there as well.
The first part of the tour took us through the expansive caves. There were lots of stalactites and stalagmites hanging from the ceiling and floor. When the two meet each other they become pillars and eventually columns. One part of the cave was blocked off due to the high levels of CO2 trapped in the cave. There were a few glowworms in this part of the cave but for the most part due to the presence of the dim lights to see where we were going, the glowworms had left. Human activity is the primary cause that has driven the glowworms away.
Tucked away in a corner of the cave was a viewing platform. The top of the cave only had a few glow worms but when you squatted down to look at the low walls, you could see hundreds of green and blue glow worms on the underside. The guide explained that the female glow worms create a transparent web that hangs down below to catch food. All of a sudden as we were admiring the glow worms he flicked a light on and the cave came to life. You could see thousands of transparent threads hanging from the ceiling. It was insane how strikingly beautiful it was!
The most magical part of the tour was the boat ride. Once our eyes adjusted to the dark, we boarded a small boat that took us through the cave system. Here it was completely dark with a sky of the glowing worms above. The glow worms created a magical scenery above us lighting up the top of the cave like stars. It was a very mesmerizing sight and there were so many of them. The glow worms were definitely a sight to see!
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