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New Zealand celebrates another International Hobbit Day

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Some hobbit holes are big enough for cruise passengers to explore (Photo: Sarah Orme/ Tourism New Zealand)
A sunrise tour and breakfast birthday party and an evening banquet dinner on the Hobbiton Movie Set are planned to celebrate International Hobbit Day, September 2.

Guests will carry lanterns to illuminate the path to the Green Dragon Inn where there will be singing and dancing, copious servings of hobbit fare like beef and ale pie and a birthday cake for Frodo and Bilbo Baggins.

 
Visitors will feel they have stepped into the world of J.R.R. Tolkien’s ‘The Lord of the Rings’ and ‘The Hobbit’ films and books.
 
Academy Award-winning New Zealand director Sir Peter Jackson made the lush hills around Matamata in New Zealand’s Waikato region on the North Island the fictional world of Middle-earth.
 
There are 44 hobbit holes. Some are miniature, but some are big enough to explore. 
 
Outside are everyday items from the lives of hobbits, including cabbage gardens, honey pots, butterfly catchers and hobbit-sized shirts and pants hung on clotheslines.
 
Hobbiton is one of the most popular tourist attractions in New Zealand, drawing in more than 350,000 visitors a year and it is a major shore excursion for ships cruising to Auckland.
 
It is a two-hour drive from Auckland and within easy access of the cruise port of Tauranga.