You're so lucky, Hobbiton was the only day that was raining throughout the entire time we were at NZ. But since I'm not a LOTR fan (never watched a minute of it) I wasn't that upset other than the fact the rain was a bit annoying.
I know what you mean about trying to avoid people in your photos, you've done a great jib of that.
And for us this was one of the few days it wasn't raining at least part of the time lol!