On Thursday, we visited the movie set where parts of The Lord of the Rings Trilogy and The Hobbit Trilogy were filmed. A few interesting facts we learned:

1. The original set built for The Lord of the Rings Trilogy in 1998 was very temporary. The hobbit holes were built using untreated lumber, plywood and polystyrene (aka styrofoam in the USA).  The bridge was built out of scaffolding, plywood and styrofoam.
2. They used permanent materials when they rebuilt the set in 2009 for The Hobbit Trilogy. They started two years before they began filming. For example, they wanted the gardens to be mature and established.
3. The filming crews were on site for three months when they filmed The Lord of the Rings Trilogy. But they were only onsite for 12 days to film everything they needed for The Hobbit Trilogy.
4. To ensure all of the details were right, they would go through extraordianary efforts like wiring 200,000 artificial leaves to trees.

The Shire is as beautiful in person as it is in the movies. We thoroughly enjoyed our time at the movie set. Check out our pictures below.