Monday, December 11, 2017
It’s already an Instagram star and now New Zealand’s most famous garden has scooped four big awards at the New Zealand Flower & Garden Show in Auckland.
‘The Beekeeper’s Hobbit Hole’, designed and built by the Hobbiton Movie Set team, has won a gold medal, the Horticultural Excellence Award, the Best in Show Award and the all-important People’s Choice Award.
The New Zealand Flower & Garden Show has made its debut at The Trusts Arena, West Auckland from 29 November – 3 December 2017. Visitors to the show were treated with a spectacular of local and international garden designs and floral art. The New Zealand Flower & Garden Show is the first international scale horticultural show to call Auckland home in almost 10 years.
The award winning garden references the village of Hobbiton and was created over a two-week period especially for the show. Hobbiton’s goal was to give visitors a little glimpse ofMiddle-earth with an amazing garden exhibit that captured Tolkien’s naturally rambling style, with a profusion of plants co-existing without rigid lines or divisions.
The Hobbiton Movie Set Garden creation is the home of the hardworking beekeeper who plays an important role in the village gardens, crop fields and honey supply. Many of the flower species in the garden are favourites of bees, meaning the beekeeper has a garden for both pleasure and produce.
Hobbiton Movie Set Project Manager Brian Massey is delighted with the result: “Our aim was to achieve a seamless blending of architecture and botanic. In many of Tolkien’s imaginings, trees were part of the structural architecture. The ground becomes buildings roofs, and buildings are climbing frames for plants. Our hope is to have the garden not appear as recently installed but well lived in, with the impression the beekeeper has just ‘ducked away’ from sitting in the sun.”
Hobbiton Movie Set CEO, Russell Alexander said he was “absolutely thrilled that the Hobbiton team have taken home four amazing awards. To have the Hobbit Hole garden described by the international gardening judges as world-class is humbling and a great testament to the team we have working in Hobbiton.”
The Hobbiton Movie Set in Matamata, near Hamilton, has become a must-see tourist activity for The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit fans travelling through New Zealand.
The New Zealand Flower & Garden Show
Putting roots down in Auckland’s Waitakere, The New Zealand Flower & Garden Show will set New Zealand back on the international garden and floral design stage, after an almost 10-year hiatus. The four-day event welcomed more than 60,000 visitors. One hundred horticultural displays and 200 industry exhibitors expected at the show will also give out-of-town visitors more than 300 great reasons to book a trip to Auckland. During the show, there will be some fantastic new events that will transform the grounds into an exciting social hub.
Tags: Tourism New Zealand
Sunday, October 1, 2023
