Fellow Geeks: Pack Your Bags, Pints Now Served at "The Hobbit" Green Dragon Pub

The Green Dragon pub, as seen in "The Hobbit," is now open to real world tourists. Check that, it's now serving tourists both brews and food at Hobbiton, the New Zealand farm where The Shire from the Lord of the Rings movies was filmed. See Also: -We Ate It: Denny's...

By Ando Muneno

December 18, 2012

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The Green Dragon pub, as seen in "The Hobbit," is now open to real world tourists. Check that, it's now serving tourists both brews and food at Hobbiton, the New Zealand farm where The Shire from the Lord of the Rings movies was filmed.

Peter Jackson is not a director that believes in half measures. When he filmed the original "Lord of the Rings" trilogy he could have recreated the Shire on a sound stage, dressed it up with a little CGI and called it a day. What he did instead is go to New Zealand, find a remote farm and literally dig hobbit holes and plant crops a full year ahead of filming.

Hobbiton has been open to visitations from the public since 2002, you can even book functions there. But the Green Dragon is their latest addition and part of an ongoing push to given rabid Lord of the Ring fans every opportunity to indulge in reliving the classic books and movies. According to NoosaNews, the opening of the Green Dragon was of sufficient magnitude that the Prime Minister of New Zealand swung by to crack the chain leading to the pub. They're also reporting that the Hobbiton's owners are planning on expanding the set even more, making it possible for people to actually stay in a hobbit hole.

So if you've ever wanted to excitedly exclaim, "It comes in pints!" while surrounded by people with a better than average chance of speaking Sindarin, you might want to start saving up for plane tickets now.

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