Mountains, wide-open grasslands, volcanoes, old forests, and rolling green hills all helped, with a little help from technology, to bring the epic film story to life. There are more than 150 different places used for The Lord of the Rings shoot location, and some of them are still easy to remember because they were where important scenes took place.
The places are spread out across New Zealand’s North Island and South Island. Of course, it’s hard to see all of them, so here are some of the best ones.
Places to visit in New Zealand to experience The Lord of the Rings shoot location
Matamata
Matamata in the Waikato area may be the most well-known place where The Lord of the Rings was filmed. The rolling green hills of Matamata were turned into the Shire, and the made-up town of Hobbiton was built near the town.
Hobbiton is the only set from either of the two movie trilogies that is still standing. This may make it more popular with people who want to see what a cute dwarf home looks like.
The only way to see Hobbiton is to go on a guided trip, which brings to life the happy times of life in the Shire.
People can see the Green Dragon Inn, the mill, the Party Tree, and the “hobbit holes,” which are small homes with round doors. In Hobbiton, there are 44 of these beautiful houses. One of them is Bag End, where Bilbo and Frodo Baggins live.
Hobbiton is only 16 kilometers away from the town of Matamata, where tours to the movie set can be taken regularly.
Mount Ngauruhoe
Fans of The Lord of the Rings will know this 2287-meter-high peak as Mount Doom, which is a good name for it. In the movies, the evil Sauron died when the fire of Mount Doom ate the One Ring.
The mountain is in Tongariro National Park on the north island. In the movies, Mordor, the land of Sauron, was shown to be on the north island.
Mount Ngauruhoe is one of the most famous places where The Lord of the Rings was filmed in New Zealand. Like the fictional Mount Doom, it is an active volcano. It exploded more than 70 times between 1839 and 1975, but it has gotten less active over time.
Mount Ngauruhoe can be seen from the Tongariro Alpine Crossing, a 20-kilometer day hike that is one of New Zealand’s nine “Great Walks.” But the Maori people believe that the mountain is holy, so hikers are told not to climb the mountain itself.
Mount Victoria
Mount Victoria is one of the best places to visit because you don’t need a guide to see it. This is the easiest Lord of the Rings spot to get to from Wellington. It’s only about a mile away from the city center. Mount Victoria was very beautiful The Lord of the Rings shoot location.
Pine woods are beautiful and have paths that lead to the top. When you get to the top, you can see the whole city of Wellington, its harbor, and the ocean.
Mount Victoria was where Hobbiton Woods was filmed in the movies. In The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), this is where the hobbits hide from the ringwraiths, or black horses, who are after them. The exact spot is on the path from Hataitai to City.
Putangirua Pinnacles
The Putangirua Pinnacles are rock formations that have been shaped over millions of years by erosion. The place is in the Aorangi National Park, near Martinborough. The strange shapes of the hoodoos make the place look like it is from another world.
In the ‘Paths of the Dead’ scene from The Return of the King (2003), Legolas, Aragorn, and Gimli, three of the main characters from The Lord of the Rings series, were on the Dimholt Road.
The Putangirua Pinnacles is one of the most beautiful places where The Lord of the Rings was filmed. There are three ways to get there. People can walk up to a higher point to see the rock forms better, and they can also walk between the pinnacles.
They can also walk to nearby Palliser Bay and Lake Onoke.
Fiordland National Park
Even before The Lord of the Rings movies, the Milford Sound in Fiordland National Park on South Island was one of New Zealand’s most famous natural sites. Rudyard Kipling called it the “Eighth Wonder of the World.”
The Fiordland National Park is part of the Te Whipounamu (Place of the Greenstone) UNESCO World Heritage site, which is known for its glaciers, lakes, rivers, and rough mountains.
It was one of the best The Lord of the Rings shoot location in New Zealand. In the movies, Dead Marshes was based on Kepler Mire on the Kepler Track. The Keppler Track is itself one of New Zealand’s nine “Great Walks.”
In The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), the Fellowship ends their trip across the made-up River Anduin at North Mavora Lake. In the movie, the River Anduin is shown, but in real life, it is the Waiau River.
Skippers Canyon
Skippers Canyon is near Queenstown on the South Island of New Zealand. It is one of the best places to film in New Zealand, even though it only showed briefly in The Fellowship of the Ring (2001).
But the scene where Skippers Canyon shows up is one of the best uses of CGI, and it may have set the tone for what came next. When the Ringwraiths come after her, Arwen calls up a flood that looks like racing horses to wash away the scary black riders.
Shotover is the name of the river where the scene was shot in Skippers Canyon.
But getting to Skippers Canyon will take a different kind of courage. The gravel road is rough, and the steep rocks on one side make it one of the most dangerous places in the world.
Mount Gunn
In one of the best parts of The Return of the King (2003), the most well-liked movie in the Lord of the Rings series, a group of lights are lit to call for help as the war with Sauron’s orc army approaches.
One of the main places where the scene was filmed was Mount Gunn in Waiho Valley near Franz Josef on the South Island.
The best way to see the Franz Josef glacier is all at once from the air. People can take helicopter rides over the beautiful scenery, which is an experience that can’t be compared to anything else.
But the difficult Franz Josef walk is for people who want to explore on foot.
As we walk through the forest for the first 15 minutes, there is a nice breeze. The path then leads to a rocky stream and ends at a lookout where you can see a beautiful glacier in the distance.
Twizel
Twizel is the largest town in the Mackenzie District of the Canterbury Region in South Island. It was built for that purpose in the 1960s. It was one of the best places in New Zealand for Peter Jackson to film his big high fantasy film series. Twizel was one of the nicest The Lord of the Rings shoot location.
The Battle of the Pelennor Fields, in which the men of Rohan and Gondor fought the fierce orc army, took place at the Twizel. It was one of the most important scenes in the movie.
Most of the extras in the epic fight scene were from Twizel, which is an interesting fact. The fight happened on private land, but a guided tour can be set up in Twizel.
Twizel is the entrance to Mount Cook National Park. It is surrounded by large green fields and beautiful mountains. It is a popular place for tourists to go during New Zealand’s summer, which is between November and February.
You can also try fishing for salmon in the lakes and rivers near Twizel.
