If you have ever visited a major film studio in Hollywood you will know how glitzy the whole experience is with tours of famous sets, and if you are lucky a glimpse of a celebrity or two.

So you might expect a similar degree of glamour when you trek to the other side of the world to Middle Earth to see where they filmed one of the biggest blockbusters of all time, namely Lord of the Rings.

But you would be in for a bit of a culture shock. They just don't do Tinseltown in New Zealand. They have a style all their own that has more to do with rugby and farming than fame.

There was great excitement as my partner Ian and two daughters Tallulah, 15 and Aurora, 10, and I drove two hours south of Auckland to see where movie history was made. We had expected giant signposts, bunting and perhaps the occasional Orc on the roadside to point us in the right direction. Triona Holden and her family try out the hobbit lifestyle in New Zealand. As it turned out there was only a small cardboard sign attached to a lamppost and we missed the turning. In our defence it's easy to overshoot the tiny town of Matamata, with a population of just over 6,000.

It's a sleepy place with only a few shops, that is until you eventually find your way to the Tourist Information Centre. The new red brick building was buzzing with activity, it was like a mini UN with groups of chattering visitors from just about any country you cared to mention.

This was where Rings Tours was based - the company set up by the Alexander family, the fortunate farmers who own the 10-acre site chosen by the director Peter Jackson as the site for the Hobbiton village. Business was brisk with more than 250 tourists turning up every day for the tours, paying $50 NZD per adult and $25 NZD a child.

Hobbit Frodo left his home to save Middle Earth. No-one was more surprised at this success than the Alexanders, who have benefited hugely from their patch of once useless swampland. Our guide, Eric, told us that it all began for the family back in September 1998 when the three brothers were sitting watching rugby with their father.

When New Line Cinema told them they wanted to make a major film on their land, Mr Alexander senior told them to go away and come back when the game was over. But when the family was told about the film in question, Mr Alexander reportedly said "Lord of the what? Never heard of it, I don't know what you are talking about."

The Return of the King was a global success. Luckily that didn't stop him agreeing to let the team use his land. When we arrived at the site we could see why director Peter Jackson was drawn to it - there was certainly a magical quality with the perfectly formed giant pine tree on the edge of a placid lake overlooked by gentle green slopes. I asked Eric if the lake had a name. He looked at me as if I was a bit potty and said: " It's a swamp, swamps don't have names." Clutching umbrellas we climbed the lush green hillside to Bag End, where hobbit Frodo Baggins (Elijah Wood) lived in the film. It was sad to see that some of the "holes" were deteriorating. But Eric reminded us that they were part of a set and as such were built to last only for a few months; four years down the line the wood was rotting.

Peter Jackson took seven years to make the Rings films Most of the hobbit homes were just frontages.

Bag End, where hobbit Frodo Baggins lived, was the exception; it did have an inside but there was only enough space for a hobbit or two. The four of us managed to squeeze in for the obligatory photo taken for us by Eric. It wasn't the luxurious entrance hall you see in the film, the floor was made up of soggy wooden planks that were covered in sheep and possum droppings.

Apparently each evening when the tourists stopped coming the animals turned Bag End into a makeshift superloo- they obviously didn't know much about the Rings films either. According to Eric we were lucky to have any of the site left at all.

Sir Ian McKellen's character, Gandalf, visited Hobbiton. The contract with New Line said the land had to be restored to its original condition after filming, so a bulldozer began demolishing the hobbit holes. But torrential rain meant the workman felt it was too dangerous to continue and he downed tools.

It was only then that the Alexanders realised they were sitting on a goldmine and called a halt to the work altogether. Only 17 "holes" had survived, but it was enough to get a feel for how it must have looked when Peter Jackson and his team were filming there. It's not a large site and the driving rain might have saved the holes for posterity but it wasn't conducive to lingering.

Anyway the next lot of tourists had arrived in a Thrifty-Car-Rental-shuttle-bus and as there were only so many courtesy umbrellas we had to hand ours over to them before heading back to Matamata and, of course, the souvenir shop.