If you’ve bee following this blog for a while, you might be familiar with what I’ve been calling “Project New Zealand.” If you’re a newer visitor, the project is, in short, my ongoing work to restore pictures from my semester abroad two years ago, photos I took with the only camera I had at the time: a low-grade little point-and-shoot that didn’t do New Zealand justice by far. Ever since I started the project, I’ve been intending to go just a little geek and have a “Lord of the Rings edition” of Project New Zealand, devoted to photos of New Zealand locations used in Peter Jackson’s trilogy. And I finally got around to it. There will certainly be a part II soon, so keep an eye out for it!
The North Island's Mount Ngauruhoe, a volcano in Tongariro National Park used as inspiration for Mount Doom
The South Island's beech forests a little outside of Queenstown, used for scenes in Lothlorien
A little bit west of the South Island’s Christchurch and Methven, the Rangitata Valley boasts one of the trilogy’s most recognizable locations: Mount Sunday, also known as Edoras. Some signs are just asking to be Photoshopped!
You can only barely see Mount Sunday / Edoras in the previous photos - here's what it looks like up close
The North Island's little town of Matamata became famous overnight after being used for the Hobbiton set. This sign is right in the middle of town and has been stolen several times.
Matamata / Hobbiton scenery. Word is that the sets, which are being entirely rebuilt for The Hobbit, will be left intact after filming wraps – a tourist’s paradise.
Twelve Mile Delta, near Queenstown on the South Island, was used for several scenes in Ithilien
Misty hills and forests around the South Island's Lake Te Anau were used to portray Fangorn Forest
Queenstown's Deer Park Heights was used a fair bit in the trilogy. This particular lake is featured in The Two Towers, with refugees from Rohan walking the perimeter. Don't recognize it? That might be because the massive mountains shown in the film were sheathed in thick clouds this particular day.
No scenes were actually filmed on the slopes of Mount Ngauruhoe in Tongariro National Park, but you can easily see how the volcano provided artistic inspiration for Mordor and Mount Doom
The Queenstown area was used quite extensively in the trilogy, as you can see. This valley at the west end of Lake Wakatipu was where Isengard was digitally inserted.
Wellington's Mount Victoria boasts several locations, including the cliff here, used in Return of the King as the filming location for Dunharrow
Gollum climbs down this rock (at the North Island's Whakapapa ski field in Tongariro National Park) toward the beginning of The Two Towers. Sadly, it is one of the few locations that looked far more impressive on film.
Matamata's Hobbiton is also a working sheep farm nowadays
Not a filming location, but an amusing sight in the South Island's town of Dunedin
2 Comments
Absolutely stunning photos. Hobbiton looks wonderfully lush. You’re incredibly lucky to have gotten to visit these places!
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