Green Door Hobbit

Photographing so many wonderful places on my epic journeys. I also travelled to 33 countries, our nearest country is New Zealand, I was on an adventure to Hobbiton in New Zealand. In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it a was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort.

As a professional photographer, I’ve always believed that some places don’t just exist on a map, they live in the imagination long before your feet ever touch their soil. Hobbiton, in New Zealand’s lush Waikato region, was one of those places for me.

I had grown up immersed in Tolkien’s world, and when the films brought Middle-earth to life on screen, I was captivated, not just by the story, but by the landscape itself. Rolling green hills, soft golden light, and of course, the iconic round doors tucked into hillsides, each one whispering the promise of a simpler, more magical world.

So when the opportunity came to travel to New Zealand, I made it a mission: I was going to photograph Bag End, and more specifically, that famous green door at the top of Hobbiton.

The journey there felt like stepping into a storybook. Winding country roads gave way to emerald pastures, sheep dotting the hills like tufts of wool. As I approached the Shire’s Rest, the air was cool and earthy, the kind that carries the scent of wet grass and old trees. Even before stepping onto the set, I could feel the magic.

When the tour began, I had my camera slung around my neck. Every step through Hobbiton felt surreal. The gardens were real, filled with fresh vegetables and colourful flowers. Smoke curled from chimneys. Lanterns hung from signposts. The details were astonishing.

And then, there it was: Bag End, perched proudly at the top of the hill, the famous green door half-open beside a wheelbarrow of pumpkins and above stone steps. I paused, letting the moment settle in. This wasn’t just a photo op. This was a place of cinematic mythology, now unfolding right in front of my lens.

Back in my studio weeks later, I looked through the images with a smile. But it was that photo, the green door at Bag End, dappled in soft light, half-hidden in flowers, that captured the essence of the day.

That adventure wasn’t just about ticking off a bucket-list destination. It was about photographing a place where imagination and reality collide, where fiction feels real, and you walk away with more than just pictures. You leave with a little piece of the Shire in your soul.

Shot with permission on location in Hobbiton, in New Zealand’s lush Waikato region. A moment of stillness, preserved for your space.