Does Middle Earth Get Tourists? I drive a car with a bumper sticker: I come from The Real Middle Earth New Zealand. Okay, I am a Lord of the Rings fan. But how else can I describe my homeland in a matter of mere words? So you come from New Zealand? Wow, what s it like? Well, have you seen The Lord of the Rings? Yeah That s it. The view out my bedroom window was basically The Shire. And I used to go hiking in Mordor. For fun. It looks a bit different without the fire, but it s still Mordor alright. Tourism in Middle Earth The Shire: Basically What You See Driving Through N.Z. That stunning green landscape isn t photo enhancement or special effects. It s really that green. And those lush, green grassy hills, rolling into the blue distance - that s typical North Island country side. It s gorgeous. You won t have to go searching for The Shire in New Zealand; it can literally be the view out your own bedroom window. But if you want the place where the actual hobbit holes are, you can take the official Movie Set Tour, which departs daily from The Shire's Rest Cafe, 501 Buckland Road, Matamata, Waikato. Your guide will lead you through 1,250 acres of stunning lush green countryside with mountain views, out to the little village of Hobbiton. The village is complete with 44 hobbit holes, including Bag End, the Party Tree, the mill and The Green Dragon Inn. You can hear tales of the history of Hobbiton, and enjoy a few ales with the best of them. For an extended stay, there s always accommodation in the town of Matamata 16 km away.
Chetwood Forest, Where the Rangers Roam Tolkien didn t use the name of Chetwood Forest, located near Nelson, South Island, but apparently Strider knew his way around there. You can visit the forest through which Aragorn was filmed leading the hobbits to safety, after meeting them in Bree. If you want to see where the Fellowship hid from Saruman s crows, it s very close to Chetwood, but inaccessible except by helicopter. Luckily for Lord of the Rings die-hards, there s a helicopter which takes this route for that very purpose, flown by a pilot who s a fellow LoTR fan. Rivendell: Other-World Elvish Beauty in Typical N.Z. Forest For many Lord of the Rings fans, the elves hold a sort of magical spell. No less will the sun-dappled forest that Peter Jackson deemed elvish enough to be Rivendell itself, the last homely home of the West, to use Tolkien s words. Pristine rivers and pools, virgin rainforest, and the fluting call of the native tui bird (recorded in the movie when Arwen is leaving Middle Earth) give Kaitoke Regional Park, 50 min. distance from the capital city of Wellington, an unearthly feel of beauty, peace and one-ness with nature that is totally elvish. Visiting Kaitoke Regional Park is free all year around, and a rewarding experience. Tourists can while away their time in Rivendell kayaking on the stunning rivers, swimming, or hiking through 2,500 hectares of untouched forest. The exact location where Frodo was filmed is indicated by a sign.
Rohan, New Location on South Canterbury Plains Maps The great plains of the horsemen, the Rohirrim, and their city, Edoras, can be found in heart and spirit, minus only the film sets, on the South Canterbury Plains. Edoras was built on a small rocky mountain, called Mt. Sunday (a most un-tolkien-ish name!), but it looks as if the place were created for the Rohirrim. You can almost hear the horse hooves pounding into the ground across the plain; at least I can. You can reach Edoras from Christchurch on your own, or on a guided tour. To get there, you will be rewarded with amazing views of the Southern Alps and the South Canterbury Plains on the way. Fangorn Forest, Where the N.Z. Trees Just Might Come Alive Milford Sound, located in the stunning Fjordland National Park near the southern end of the South Island, has been famous for more than a hundred years as a place of spectacular, unparalleled nature. In fact, if a random picture book has a single photo of New Zealand at all, chances are 80% it s of Milford Sound.
But Fjordland National Park has had extended interests since it took the further names of Fangorn Forest and the elvish river of Nen Hithoel. This fantastic area of New Zealand, for all its untouched pristine beauty, has nevertheless been harmoniously blended with walking trails and tourist accommodation for decades, so it s easy to explore. Simply join Merry and Pippin as you find out whether New Zealand trees really do talk! Meanwhile, enjoy cascading waterfalls, superb beauty, unique mountain views and all of nature s most magnificent glory. Time to Change Twizel to Pelennor Pelennor Fields, the location of the battle charge of the Rohirrim, can be explored with the LOTR Twizel (name of nearest town) Tour. It s an impressive experience for those who want in-depth knowledge of the actual movie-making. Each tour is limited to nine people, making it more personal and individualized, and the tour guides go into depth about the making of the trilogy. Mordor and Mount Doom One question I get asked a lot when I m talking about Middle Earth / New Zealand is: Do you New Zealanders actually call it Mordor? Well, no, not always. You see, I m a linguist, a New Zealander and a show-off, so sometimes I call it Tongariro National Park, just because I can pronounce it and you probably can t. Mount Ngauruhoe is even more of a show-case for my Maori pronunciation! However, a lot of the time, New Zealanders do refer to Mordor as if it were just a place on our national map. Which is sort of is, in a way. Mordor is the Volcanic Plateau in the middle of the North Island, a place of stunning, fantastic and dramatic landscape shaped by centuries of volcanic eruptions. Mount Doom s upside-down ice-cream cone shape is not a Photo-Shop trick, like some people think it is. Mount Doom really looks like a perfect cone-shape, and it s a forbidding black lava rock. The land is contorted into weird, wild volcanic rock formations. I ve been up there on misty days, when the sky is dark and the wind off the peaks is blowing the clouds into grotesque
shapes around the huge jutting black rocks. It s definitely eerie enough to be the same place that Frodo and Sam laboured through. The atmosphere can be very Mordor-ish at times. Despite being so close to the Eye of Sauron, Mordor is heavily frequented year around, by skiers in the winter and hikers and campers in the summer. Multiple hiking trails take you along paths identical to Frodo s and Sam s. Accommodation can be had on the mountainside of Mount Ruapehu, within hiking distance of Mount Doom. All volcanoes on the plateau are active, and I ve seen smoke or steam rising out of both Ruapehu and Ngauruhoe. It s easy to imagine the Cracks of Doom being located somewhere up there. However, it has been decades since the last serious eruption occurred, and New Zealanders don t consider the plateau dangerous at all. See You in Middle Earth! Middle Earth New Zealand is well worth the journey! I am proud to be a New Zealander; for me, Peter Jackson s trilogy is simply a trip back home. I invite you to go see it for yourself! Attributions for Photos: These photos are from Flickr Creative Commons. The Hobbit hole is attributable to Jeff Hitchcock, copyright Nov. 18 2012, made available under creative commons licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/legalcode. This photo was resized to be fit into this document. The New Zealand Native Forest is attributable to Flying Kiwi Tours, copyright January 18, 2013, made available under creative commons licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/legalcode. This photo was resized to be fit into this document. The South Canterbury Plains is attributable to Phillip Capper, copyright June 9 2008, made available under creative commons licence https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/legalcode. This photo was resized to be fit into this document. The Milford Sound Forestry is attributable to Joan Campderrós-i-Canas, copy-right January 3 2010, made available under creative commons licence https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/legalcode. This photo was resized to be fit into this document. Mount Doom is attributable to SarahDepper, copyright Dec 9, 2009, made available under creative commons licence https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/legalcode. This photo may have been resized to be fit into this document.