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For most of us, New Zealand was just a couple of
islands at the other end of the world, well known for it's sheep and kiwi fruit. But in
2001 all that changed, when Peter Jackson and New Line Cinema brought The Lord of the
Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring in theatres all over the world. In a wink of an eye, Welli-wood was born and New Zealand became the new centre of movie land. Not only the movie industry, but also tourism got a boost. Organisations as Red Carpet Tours and Nomad Safaris anticipated very well to this new demand. They provide the best Middle Earth experience money can buy. Now, let us take you with us on a fantastic through the land of Kiwi’s and Maori. |
Auckland
After a 36 hours journey (including a 12 hours transfer in Kuala Lumpur - Malaysia) we finally arrived in Auckland - New Zealand. For us, it is about the farthest away from home we can fly commercially. At the airport we met Vic, founder and tour guide of Red Carpet Movie Tours. After he took us to the hotel, we had 24 hours to wind down from all the travelling and get use to the time difference.
The next day we’re picked up by Vic. We were on our way to meet the other pioneers. In the lobby of the Spencer on Byron Hotel, we met our travelling companions.
It was an international group: From Australia, there were Chris and Lyn from Sydney and Jamie, Sharon and their daughter Kristine from Melbourne, from the US there were Ariane, Darrin and Ruth and her parents Joe and Gerry. And on the Southern Ilsand we were joined by Jane. From Europe we had Linda and her son Nick from the UK and yours truly from Belgium.
| Fourteen companions, we were going to be the Fellowship of this
movie tour. We get acquainted with one another and soon we find out that we shared more than just an interest for the Lord of the Rings books and movies. We end off our day with a lovely dinner in the company of Erica Challis, Tolkien
expert, founder of The One Ring .net
Most of us call it an early night. Tomorrow we will finally get on the road. |
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What follows now is a chronological journal of our visits to the movie set locations, used by Peter Jackson’s production team. We like to point out that this tour is completely planned and organised by Vic James and his team of Red Carpet Tours.
Because the vast number of locations we split up the review over the Nothern and Souhtern Islands. Please select an island and find out about its filming locations.
We will use following abbreviations to refer to the movies: FotR (The Fellowship of the Ring), TTT (The Two Towers) and RotK (Return of the King). As reference material we use the Extended DVD-editions of the movies.
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