Peter Jackson’s final movie instalment of The Hobbit is still to come under public scrutiny, but has the approval of fans.

Seventy-five fans, each bringing a guest, and 40 international media arrived in New Zealand last Sunday.

They have visited Auckland, Rotorua, the Hobbiton Movie Set near Matamata, Queenstown, and landed in Wellington.

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Weta’s Richard Taylor met them at the airport where he unveiled a new sculpture of Smaug the dragon, which joins the giant eagles and Gollum.

The sculpture breathes smoke from its nose and its eye opens up.

A scene from the Hobbit: A unexpected journey. Photo: Supplied

“They really did that incredibly,” one fan said.

The fans finished their journey watching The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies with Jackson at his private Wellington studios.

“We’ve been waiting all week for this – I’m pretty sure some people here have been waiting for this all their lives,” a woman said before the screening.

Fans were impressed by the movie, with one describing it as a roller coaster from start to finish.

“We’ve been watching the last Hobbit movie with Peter Jackson in the theatre and I cried a thousand tears because it’s the end and I don’t want it to be,” a woman said.

The film will be released in New Zealand on December 11.

It is the last film set in JRR Tolkien’s Middle-earth and follows Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy and the first two instalments of The Hobbit.

The fans were chosen from more than 140,000 entries in a global contest.