In case anybody is interested (and I know some of you are), here is a list of locations used for some of the scenes in "Lord of the Rings". It's rather annoying to think that a lot of these will now be overrun with tourists, and in a small way this post probably contributes to that, but fortunately this is still a country with plenty of room to move around in -- the land area of the UK but with only four million people means we can probably handle a few extra tourists. A lot of these locations are in the South Island, which has more than half the total land area and only one million people, so I feel no guilt for all this blatant promotion.

Mordor: various parts of Tongariro National Park. You can drive there in a day from my place, but you're more likely to find it full of university students on skiiing holidays than orcs. Hm. Actually, now I think of it, there isn't a lot of difference.

Mt Doom: Mt Ngaruahoe, in Tongariro National Park. See above.

Rivendell and the River Anduin: Kaitoke Regional Park, near Wellington.

Lothlorien: The Greenstone Track at Lake Whakatipu, South Island; Fernside, near the town of Featherston, also South Island; the Dart River, likewise.

When Frodo and Sam are leaving the Shire, several of the scenes were at Mt Victoria, slap bang right in the middle of Wellington city. Other parts of the Shire, along with Bree, can be found in Fort Dorset.

I was wrong about Caradhras. It isn't Ngaruahoe, but Mt Owen in the South Island (Kahurangi National Park).

The Misty Mountains are our Southern Alps.

Edoras, which we will see in the next movie, is at Mt Sunday near the horrible little town of Twizel in the South Island. Twizel itself is the scene of one of the Nazgul horse chases in the first movie, as is Arrowtown, a BRILLIANT little gold rush settlement which has shaped up into a great little tourist spot in the middle of miles and miles of freakin' nowhere. I love Arrowtown even if there aren't any Nazgul there.

Amon Hen, like bits of Lorien, is also on the Dart River.

Helm's Deep is in Dry Creek Quarry in Wellington.

The really great thing about some of these settings, looking back at the movie, is that they're so generically New Zealand. I imagine a lot of people will come here to do a "movie locations tour route", clutter up the Greenstone Track or wherever, and completely miss out on all the other random locations that basically look identical AND are completely empty of people. Let's not tell them. Hehee.

Brunnen-"did I mention I LOVE Arrowtown? I love Arrowtown."G