Lord of the Rings filiming locations in Queenstown, New Zealand
Round up of Lord of the Rings filming locations around Queenstown
For many of the LOTR fans, a trip to New Zealand is akin to a pilgrimage - after all, both the LOTR and the Hobbit trilogies are filmed exclusively in the country. Outside the purpose-built Hobbiton in the North Island (pre-booking is essential as tickets are sold out months in advance during peak season), finding other LOTR filming locations can take some research. Here, we share some of the iconic locations around Queenstown. Peter Jackson spent many childhood holidays here, and it is not hard to see why he has chosen many locations around Queenstown for the films.
You can also go on a LOTR guided tour, where you'll hear more of the behind-the-scenes stories, play dress up (and have a sense of how heavy the props are), and even have a sneak peek of the scripts! I certainly had a new admiration for Aragorn (aka Viggo Mortensen) after lifting the sword he used in the film. Please note that some of the locations below are only visited during the full-day tour, such as Paradise and Isengard (the tree where Boromir died on is also located on the same farm; however, due to the number of people trying to trespass and locate the tree, the area has been closed off).
The Remarkables
Also nicknamed the 'resuables', the Remarkables is a mountain range near Queenstown, where Peter Jackson has used it in multiple shots - cleverly using the clouds to make it appear as different mountain ranges in the film.
Other locations
Some of these locations are more obscure. The most convenient way is to take a LOTR guided tour, where you can relive all the actions from the films, and bond with the fellowship.
"I am no man"
The Twizel locations are not part of the tour from Queenstown. We stayed at Twizel whilst visiting Mt Cook. Twizel is a very small town, and the LOTR crew actually stayed here for a while during the shoot. It's very easy to see why the fields in Twizel were chosen for the Pelennor fields scene.
Twizel is part of the Aoraki Mackenzie International Dark Sky Reserve, New Zealand's largest dark sky reserve. Unfortunately, both days were cloudy when we were there, so no stargazing for us. The drive from Twizel to Mt Cook is also spectacular.
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