Hobbiton: Sheep 1, Hobbits 0. Matamata in New Zealand was the place chosen to film the Hobbiton scenes of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy of movies. After the film was finished the farm upon which the Hobbit village was created asked if some of the hobbit homes could remain to serve as an additional tourist attraction to the area. ...And so it was.
However, it does look as if the sheep have discovered a new home and evicted the previous hobbit owners. A shame in some ways. However, the structures were never built and then fully furnished - all the scene's inside of Bilbo's house were shot in a studio far away. In other words, don't go to Matamata's Hobbiton expecting Disneyland. Yet while you may be enticed to this rural community by the ghosts of Peter Jackson's movies, there is more to the place than Hobbiton, even though it is still a quaint remnant of a supreme series of movies. The set still has a charm all of its own. Just sit back, use your imagination and you will be in Hobbiton. Homemade MREs.
For quite a while now, I've wanted to make up my own "MREs" for my Get Home Bag (GHB). I was recently out scouting some properties, and realized that my GHB only had some packs of tuna and some candy in them. I had broken my own Cardinal Rule - If you use it, replace it immediately. So, I went about making up some MRE packages. Now, these are not true MREs, in that their shelf life is less than half of the 5 years of a commercial MRE, but I figured they were WAY less expensive (remember this later on in the post...).
I assembled my "ingredients" based on "Best By" date, calories and protein content. The Best By date had to be at least 12 months into the future - I figured any of the foods would last at least twice that amount of time. They may not taste quite as good, and might have lost some of their nutrients, but for the most part, they would get the job done. The idea was to put long-life food together and vacuum seal it in a FoodSaver bag. For my first MRE, here's what I included - How to Make a Bug Out Bag.
Welcome guest ! 8 Abandoned Theme Parks Abroad “Open” for Exploration. Call it exoticism: theme parks outside the US seem just a smidgen creepier than those we grew up visiting. Safety guidelines are questionable, attractions are a bit lees planned-out, and themes are chosen with a decidedly laissez-faire attitude. Although these factors might be a detriment to theme parks while they’re still in business, they certainly increase foreign parks’ appeal to urban explorers with an eye for the bizarre once they’ve been abandoned. Between South Korea’s affinity for anthropomorphic roller coasters, Japan’s misguided desire the please the Ruskies, and Berlin’s story of a carnival master turned Peruvian drug smuggler, exploring international abandoned parks is a big notch on any urban explorer’s camera strap.
But take note! Breaking into these parks is not for the faint of heart (or slow of step). Just like at abandoned theme parks in the US , theme park operators abroad don’t much like nosy foreigners making a mockery of their failures. Image: Streetbeat85 /Flickr. The world's ten creepiest abandoned cities. Wave Rock, Huge 'Wave' Made From Rock in Australia | Adventure Travel Tips.