A Feast Fit For a Hobbit in The Green Dragon - Hobbiton, NZ
By now, you’ve seen my immense love of Lord of the Rings, and accomplishing my dream of seeing Hobbiton in person.
Whilst planning my trip (last June) I was delighted to see that Hobbiton actually offers WAY MORE than just their normal day tours. When I saw all of the different special opportunities they offered, I quickly reorganized our trip so that we’d get to spend two days out there.
Surprisingly, Hobbiton offers “second breakfast” tours in the early mornings, as well as evening banquet tours which include dinner. They also offer many seasonal events like celebrating Hobbit day, Oktoberfest, and other special days to Lord of the Rings fans. Right away, I knew I wanted to do an evening banquet tour. The thought of getting to be in The Shire after dark, in a small group, enjoying dinner in the Green Dragon just seemed too good to be true. I recognize that not a lot of people would even have the desire to visit Hobbiton twice, but we’d waited so long to see this in person that I wanted to be able to soak it all in and enjoy.
Now, our banquet tour was on our second day out in Matamata so we’d already experienced the normal day tour. About 15 minutes into the evening tour, my mom turns to me and says “this is way better than during the day!”. I immediately knew that if anyone asked me for recommendations, I would tell them that the evening banquet tour was worth the whole trip out there.
Here are a few of the things I learned from this extra special experience:
The evening banquet tour is a very small group, and you get Hobbiton all to yourself. The normal day tours leave about every 15 minutes, so when you finally get to Hobbiton, there are LOTS of people ahead and behind you taking the other various tours. It’s still very magical, but very busy in all of the photos and videos. The evening banquet tour takes a group of 45 people after all of the other tours are done for the day, and you have the whole place to yourself at dusk. Getting to walk The Shire nearly alone, while the sun was setting, was incredible. The banquet guests are really the only ones who get to experience Hobbiton in the dark, and for some reason I was just tickled that all the lights in each of the houses came on, and smoke rose from all the chimneys. It really felt like all the hobbits were just tucking in for the night themselves. If you are planning to visit Hobbiton, and can only go once, I would highly recommend that you take one of the extra special tours just so you get more of a VIP experience.
These special tours sell out very far in advance, especially the evening banquet tour. We’d purchased our tickets about a year in advance, and the Hobbiton guides all said that’s about when they sell out. They recommended that anyone who was interested in doing the banquet tour to purchase their tickets a year in advance - and everyone in our group that evening had said they’d purchased theirs that far in advance. This is not something that you can just throw together at the last minute.
Actually eating dinner in The Green Dragon is an experience in itself. The banquet they served us was some of the best food we had the entire trip. We couldn’t believe all the food on the table, and everything was served “family style” which ended up being a very fun way to make friends that night. We had a little bit of everything from roast chicken, fish, beef stew, salads, and of course, potatoes. Our ticket included the meal, one drink per guest (or unlimited non-alcoholic drinks and coffee) and dessert. And there was plenty of it. We were in heaven. Several times our guides reminded us that we should feast like hobbits, not like dwarves.
4. Plan on getting back to your room late that night. From start to finish, this entire experience was a little over four hours long and ends about 10 PM. Now remember, if you’re staying in Auckland you’re about a two hour drive from Matamata so you’ll have a long way back. The town of Matamata is very small and didn’t offer much in the way of hotels but we were able to find an Airbnb within walking distance of Hobbiton, and I know there were lots more around that area. If you plan on doing the evening tour, I would highly recommend staying somewhere close so you don’t have a long, dark trip back at the end of the night.
5. It’s an absolutely immersive experience. The guides here do such a good job letting you take your time through the little village at dusk before dinner. They tell you all the Lord of the Rings lore and then let you enjoy the beautiful New Zealand evening while dinner is getting set up. Inside The Green Dragon, the fireplace is roaring, the bartenders are slinging drinks, music is playing, and the food is delicious. Everyone is dressed up and trying to make you feel like you’re in Middle Earth getting ready to enjoy a pint with Merry, Pippin, Frodo and Sam.
After dinner and dessert are over, everyone is given a lantern to make their way back in the dark. On our evening, our guides stopped us under the “party tree” where Bilbo’s birthday party was held (and is a real tree, by the way) and told us a few more stories and had us make some wonderful memories. A moment I’ll never forget is when he had us all shut out lanterns off so our eyes could adjust to the dark to see the stars - we could even see the Milky Way! He then told us to shut out eyes, and think of our favorite spot we’d come across in Hobbiton that day, and whenever we’re having a bad day back in the real world, to remember that moment. It was pure magic.
I cannot say enough good things about doing the evening banquet tour in Hobbiton. It was absolutely a highlight of our entire trip to New Zealand. Several times through the evening, I just kept having to remind myself where I was and what I was doing! Everyone was so friendly and clearly, we were all very big fans of Lord of the Rings. We were living our best hobbit lives. This is an experience that I will not soon forget.
