We’re going on an adventure! This is obviously the first thing you are going to say when you begin your Lord of the Rings road trip around New Zealand. After all, there is no other place on earth that you can get this close to Middle Earth. To help inspire your Lord of the Rings road trip, mark in some of the following destinations to take a stop at.
Courtesy of tolkien.land
Matamata
Just a short drive from Auckland is the home of Hobbiton and The Shire. Once you park the car, you can embark on a 2 hour tour which takes you around the film sites such as Bag-end, The Mill, The Green Dragon, as well as that infamous party tree where Bilbo disappeared from. There is also The Shire’s Rest Café where you can stop by and have a coffee, reflecting on your time in Hobbiton.
Taupo
If you’re keen to climb Mount Doom for real, the park the car at the base of Mount Ruapehu where the filming crew based their operations for all those scenes in eerie Mordor. You should wear decent walking shoes as you take the 15 minute climb into the Whakapapa and Turoa ski areas which lie in the very heart of Modor. From here you can see the expanses of land where they filmed the ‘battle of the second age’.
Wellington
Central to the filming success of the Lord of the Rings, Wellington is essentially the base of the sets. In Weta Workshop and their Weta Cave Museum in Miramar, there are still many characters, props, and displays which you will recognise from the movies. There is free admission to this museum, and plenty of souvenirs and collectibles to buy.
Queenstown
Down in the southern end of the South Island, just past Queenstown, are the Misty Mountains where Gandalf remarkably rode Shadowfax across the vast lands. The filming of the dramatic finale of The Fellowship of the Ring was done close by here in Paradise and Mavora Lakes where there are a number of walks and hikes you can do to take you into the Ithlien Camp.
For fans of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, having the chance to see the breathtaking sites which inspired Peter Jackson to turn the fantasy books into an onscreen reality is a once in a lifetime event. For this reason, having a car and being able to drive from one filming location to the next is the best way to enjoy everywhere from Hobbiton to Middle Earth. The best way to get a safe and reliable vehicle is with Hertz car hire service in New Zealand, providing the best value for money on cars.
Now that you’ve seen the great locations from the Lord of the Rings franchise, why not check out some locations from other films with this infographic from Superjeep.is which shows a list of locations in Iceland that were featured in some of your favourite films.
