LOTR Sites on the South Island

The LOTR sites we saw on NZ's South Island were all really big!  We saw the locations for Edoras, Isengard, Pelennor Fields, The Dead Marshes and the river used in several shots from Fellowship of the Ring.  We did watch all the movies again right before our trip, which was a lot of fun!  We also read a lot of blogs about filming locations and even watched a few YouTube videos on the subject, which were very helpful.  Some of the prettiest locations are only reached by helicopter, unfortunately.    

Our favorite spot on the South Island was Edoras - filmed on Mt. Sunday.  It's a long way down a dirt road, and we had the place to ourselves.  Terry had fun finding anchors in rocks that were used when the hilltop village was built for the movie.  The hike itself was quite easy.   We are so glad we didn't skip this one, which we considered doing when we had a wreck the day before and were a little behind schedule.

looking towards Helm's Deep

The fictional location of Isengard is near Paradise, NZ.  It's about an hour's drive from Queenstown (a very scenic drive!). There isn't an exact spot shown, and we know that in some cases mirror image shots were used, so we didn't want to use too much of a beautiful day trying to pin down an exact location.  Here's the general area.  

And we also saw the filming site for the Battle of Pelennor Fields.  Google Maps actually leads you to a spot.   We did hear that almost everyone who lives in the town of Twizel was an extra in the movie.  

And when we were the very furthest south that we went on our trip (and the furthest south we have ever been in our life), we saw the river where many of the river scenes from Fellowship of the Rings were filmed.  We took a long hike near there, and if we're ever back, we'd love to float this river.

While on our hike on the Kepler Track, we saw a marshy area very like the Dead Marshes.  We don't know if it's the exact same location, but we do know this scene was filmed in the "Kepler Mire" - so it's somewhere close and probably looks a lot like this.   

LOTR Sites on the North Island

We certainly couldn't see ALL the Lord of the Rings sites in NZ, but we did see a lot on both the north and south islands, and I've put them all the ones on the North Island in this one post - except Hobbiton, which gets its own post!

One of our stops was the Weta Workshop (in both Wellington and Aukland) where the props were made for these and many other movies.  We took a "behind the scenes tour" in Wellington.  

 

Gollum's Pool (aka Tawhai Falls in Tongariro National Park)

Mt. Doom - aka Mount Ngauruhoe (Tongariro National Park):

It is an active volcano, and there were evacuation instructions at our campground.  Luckily, we did not need them. 

 

 

The Gates of Mordor (Whakapapa Ski Field):

 

 

And the spot where the hobbits hid from the black riders (a city park in Wellington):

We know this is the right spot because of a plaque, but let's just say that this scene was heavily edited. so I felt pretty stupid hiding from the Black Riders here.  But the forest did have a bit of a creepy feel. 

Hobbiton

 As a "Happy 35th Anniversary to Us!" present, we finally made a long-anticipated trip to New Zealand.  It is fitting that our first visit was to Hobbiton.  It was seeing the scenery in Lord of the Rings that actually inspired us to make a visit.

Hobbiton did not disappoint!  The day was gorgeous (we arrived at the beginning of autumn there), and seeing the set of the movie(s) was just so fun!  There is so much attention to detail!  We especially enjoyed hearing lots of "behind the scenes info" and seeing the inside of two hobbit holes that were just completed a few months ago.  

Bag End

Party Field

Sam and Rosy's home

Hobbit Dollhouse

Enjoying my drink at the Green Dragon