Tolkien Location
|
NZ Location
|
Commentary
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| Hobbiton |
Matamata |
Hobbiton is on a farmer's private land and he is bound
by contract not to open the site to the public.
|
| Outer Shire |
|
|
| Farmer Maggot's field |
|
|
| "Get off the road!" |
Mt Victoria in Wellington |
A gorgeous park in Wellington with great views and
enticing mountain bike trails.
|
| Bree |
Fort Dorset in Seatoun |
Nothing left to see here. There used to be a
fort that now is being developed as a school.
|
| Arwen, Nazgul horse chase |
Wanaka Terraces |
A sheep paddock with scattered pine trees just outside
of Wanaka.
|
| Rivendell |
Kaitoke Regional Park |
One of the few sites to help visitors find it. There
actually are signs. The Dept of Conservation (DOC) ranger told us what
it was like over-seeing the film crew.
|
| River Anduin |
Upper Hutt |
The man who rented us our car said he saw filming at
this site by the river for a week or two. But it doesn't look exactly
like the "Come and claim him" scene.
|
River Anduin, Ford of Bruinen
|
Arrowtown
|
Just minutes from the center of Arrowtown on the Arrow
River.
|
| Lothlorien, Silverlode river |
Fernside Lodge |
We didn't make it to this spot.
|
Lothlorien, Isengard
|
Glenorchy
|
In Mt Aspiring national park. We took a guided
tour in a range rover to get to this spot.
|
Amon Hen
|
Queenstown
|
A hill on private land on the way to Glenorchy with
the Remarkables in the background.
|
Gates of the Kings
|
Kawarau River
|
It is amazing how small the river is compared to how
it looks on the big screen. Very near the site of the first bungy jump
by AJ Hackett.
|
| Mount Doom slopes |
Mt Ruapehu, Mt Ngauruhoe |
As we took the train through this park, the clouds
were too heavy to see Mt Doom.
|
| Helm's Deep |
Lower Hutt, Dry Creek Quarry |
Much of the exterior scenes were shot with models,
but the quarry does look pretty cool.
|
| Isengard |
Harcourt Park |
Again, it took some imagination to see Isengard here,
but it was a lovely neighborhood park.
|
| Crow spies |
A lake between Milford Sound and Queenstown
|
This is one of those places that required a helicopter
for the film crew, so we didn't make it here. But it would be a great
hike.
|
?
|
Arthur's Pass, Castle Rock
|
Don't know what was filmed here, but the Arthur's Pass
locals tell us that something was. We turned back because of bad weather
and didn't see Castle Rock.
|
| Dimrill Dale hillside |
Takaka Hill |
I'm ashamed to admit that I don't know what the heck
Dimrill Dale is. I'll have to watch the movie again. Or maybe
it is a scene from the second or third movie.
|
| Chetwood Forest |
Mt Owen, Mt Olympus |
Somewhere west of Christchurch. We missed this
one.
|
| Pelennor Fields |
Twizel |
We drove through Twizel on our way to Christchurch.
|
| White Mountain Foothills |
Twizel |
|
| Dead Marshes |
Fiordland |
While in fiordland, we saw the fiords. We didn't
interrogate the locals to find the film locations.
|
| Midgewater Marshes |
Fiordland |
|
| Weathertop countryside |
Fiordland |
|
| Mines of Moria, Khazad dum, Cirith Ungol |
computer generated at Weta Studios on Camperdown St in Wellington |
The studios looked like a great place to work, but
there wasn't a lot of options for lunches. They sure smoked a lot of
cigarettes... the box of sand for butts was about 1x3 feet and completely
full.
|