New Zealand is a country that I have been to twice and I fell in love with it a little bit more each time. I worked there for several weeks and travelled around. I could easily live there. I would happily retire there. I want to go back in a heart beat. I just love the breadth of the environment that NZ offers. Beaches, mountains, geysers, glaciers and everything in between. Hardly any, if any at all, dangerous creatures. And very, very friendly people.
Some people give New Zealand a slight reputation for being a little behind the times, or being a bit slow in terms of lifestyle. Sure, it does have a laidback way of life and people aren’t always in a rush, but that’s one of the attractions to me. And to be honest I don’t really think there’s any justification for the reputation for being behind the times. Certainly not in this day and age. Kim Dotcom and his latest company Mega are based in NZ and Weta Digital is a leading player in global visual effects now, plus there is an increasing number of companies in the video game and online gaming sector. It’s hugely respected in so many ways, but if the Casino Online NZ site had been around in the early 2000s I wonder how many Kiwis would have put money on the Lord of the Rings films being such a global success. Peter Jackson was essentially a budget film maker at the time and he was proposing making three movies back to back completely in New Zealand. Those movies went on to become arguably New Zealand’s biggest export, other than the All Black rugby team.
I distinctly remember hearing that films based on Dungeons & Dragons and Lord of the Rings were going to be released in 2000 and 2001 respectively. My gut instinct was that both of them were going to be sub-par movies with poor CGI. I thought that Dungeons & Dragons would likely be the better film. Oh how wrong I was. The Lord of the Rings trilogy was an immense feat of movie-making and are some of my all time favourite movies. The making of the series is almost as epic as the plot of the films themselves. If I get to go back to New Zealand I would really like to visit some of the locations from the movie. Here are my top five locations, in no particular order.
Hobbiton
This one is obviously a no-brainer as it’s the official tour of the Hobbiton film set. Pretty accessible location as it’s situated between Hamilton and Rotorua. It’s very cool in the sense that is the only one that is pretty much identical to the movie, as the other locations would have had some sets or CGI augmentation.
https://www.hobbitontours.com/
Hobbit path with Ringwraiths
One scene I always loved from the first film is when the Hobbits are walking along a path and then detect the Ringwraiths coming. They jump off to the side of the path and hide under a bit of a tree stump or something. The Ringwraiths crouch down and nearly find them, and you see all those insects come out etc. It’s really well done and I just loved those lush forest paths they walk along. I figured they would be out in the countryside somewhere but apparently they are on Mount Victoria right in the middle of Wellington, so extremely accessible.
Mount Doom
One of the most important locations from the film must be Mt Doom. It’s where the big ending (well the ‘first ending’) of the third movie happens. In real life it’s called Mount Ngauruhoe and is located not too far from Lake Taupo. I bet seeing this around sunset is a bit more reminiscent of its appearance in the movies.
Edoras
Mount Sunday, in Canterbury, due West of Christchurch is the unique location for the magnificent Edoras in the movies. The physical set was probably just as impressive as the location but I’m sure the location is still hugely impressive without it. This one is a bit more remote to get to but it would certainly be on my list to visit.
The Pillars of the Kings (Argonath)
Those massive statues that the Fellowship paddle past in the first film are just breathtaking. It’s one of the most fantastical and impressive parts of the films for me and really brings me into this world of history and legacy. The real life location is in the Kawarau Gorge near Queenstown. I would love to go along that river in a boat and recreate the experience of the Fellowship and look up in awe like Sam. Imagine you could do it with Augmented Reality glasses that added the actual statues of the kings. That would be incredible.
https://www.filmquest.co/film-locations/kawarau-gorge-the-pillars-of-the-kings/