It has been a hell of a year for most of our tourism businesses, thanks to the Covid-91 pandemic which has ravaged most if not all forms of trade.

When the borders closed back in March, Hobbiton, near Matamata, was forced to let go of around 250 staff.

Fast forward seven months, and some of those have been rehired as the business looks ahead to what it hopes will be a busy domestic summer.

Hobbiton co-founder and CEO Russell Alexander told Heather du Plessis-Allan business is going well, depending on how you look at it.

"Once we got our head around it in March of what is the new morn and what you're going to be... yeah we're very happy, but if you go back and compare it to a year ago, you don't really want to do that.

"Probably [down] a little more than a wee bit."

Mr Alexander says if things continue to trend well over summer, they should be able to rehire more staff.