A STOURBRIDGE film fan and blogger has won the trip of a lifetime to New Zealand to see an exclusive screening of the new Hobbit movie, visit the set of Middle-earth and meet director Peter Jackson himself.

The trip is a dream come true for 27-year-old Stourbridge News film and theatre reviewer Kyle Pedley - a film-maker and mega fan of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit movies, who is one of just six UK and Ireland based winners of The Hobbit Fan Fellowship Contest.

Kyle, from Amblecote, said: "I cannot begin to say how overwhelmed and excited I am to have won.

"Peter Jackson is the reason I got into filmmaking. His movies have literally changed my life."

To win the once-in-a-lifetime prize - offered up by New Line Cinema, MGM Pictures, Warner Bros. Pictures, Air New Zealand and Tourism New Zealand - entrants had to complete Hobbit film-related challenges including sending a postcard to Peter Jackson explaining why they belonged in the Fan Fellowship, answering a Hobbit quiz and supplying a video message sharing their passion for all things Hobbit related.

Kyle, of (A)musings Media - who is about to launch his own photography business, filmed his offering at Dudley's Black Country Living Museum, Moseley Bog and Birmingham's Sarehole Mill where author JRR Tolkien, who wrote the The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings books, played as a child.

Around 140,000 ardent fans around the world entered the competition but only 75 were selected to jet off on the five-day adventure which will see them touch down on November 2 in Auckland, New Zealand, for a tour of locations across the country's north and south islands made famous by The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies.

The fans will also be treated to a Maori cultural performance and traditional hangi banquet in Rotorua and a private tour of the set of The Shire - home of Bilbo Baggins.

But the highlight will undoubtedly be the chance to meet legendary director Peter Jackson and enjoy a preview screening of the third and final Hobbit film - The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies - at the movie-maker's private studios in Wellington before it hits cinema screens on December 12.

A visit to the site of the Pillar of Kings - home of the Kawerau Bungy and zipline - will also be thrown in for the Fan Fellowship competition winners.

Sue Kroll, president - worldwide marketing and international distribution for Warner Bros. Pictures, said: "These are fans with passion and a sense of adventure, and we’re thrilled to invite them to experience the wonder of this last trip to Middle-earth with Peter Jackson himself in New Zealand.”

The competition, however, is not the first time super fan Kyle's devotion to the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit flicks has been acknowledged.

The former King Edward VI College and Ridgewood High School student, who has been making movies since he was eight, has been voted number one fan in the country twice before - and he attended the London premiere of Return of the King in 2003 and the Royal premiere of the first Hobbit film, An Unexpected Journey, in December 2012.

He knows the script to Jackson's first Lord of the Rings film off by heart and even shot his own feature-length parody of the original trilogy while still at school.