New Zealand in the Footsteps of the Lord of the Rings

By: Maria Berkestam, Travel Mamas Guest Blogger
August 5th, 2010

“Welcome to Middle Earth!” A huge sign at the Auckland airport greeted us with these words the minute we stepped off the plane. It was a fitting start to our Lord of the Rings adventure through New Zealand.

Maria’s three teens in front of the Lord of the Rings Hobbiton in Matamata, New Zealand

It was entirely the kids’ idea to go to faraway New Zealand from our home in Sweden. Diehard J.R.R. Tolkein fans, all three of our teenagers knew the three-hour long dialogue from the first Lord of the Rings film by heart. They had read the books, both in English and in Swedish, as well as a couple of autobiographies by the actors. They had made their own cloaks (which they wore wherever we went), studied Elfish and did lots of role playing with their friends. Now they wanted to visit “the real place.” Since my husband and I are firm believers that kids learn loads when they can immerse themselves with their interests, we took up the idea immediately.

The family’s rented campervan in front of a typical gorgeous New Zealand view

Hobbiton
With our Lord of the Rings Location Guidebook in hand, we started out in our rented campervan on the North Island at Matamata. This is the place where Hobbiton is situated in the Tolkein stories. We took the informative guided tour of the movie set village. We were able to see the hobbit houses (what’s left of them), Sam’s beautiful garden, the huge party tree as well as the green hills of “The Shire.”

Mordor
Our next stop was a bit darker, Mordor. The scenes for this horrific place were actually shot at a ski resort on Mount Ruapehu! If you look away from the ski lifts and forget the parking lot (where they shot the battle scenes in the beginning of the first movie) you can imagine this place as the home of darkness and evil. The mountain was made of hardened black lava, as it’s a volcano, and it was surrounded in eerie mist.

Mordor looks just like you would imagine (if you turn away from the ski lifts)

Gollum’s River
We set forth on a quest to find the river where, in the movie Gollum caught a fish and ate it raw. Since we had our terrific guide book, containing both maps as well as pictures from the movie, we found the exact place outside the village of Ohakune – we even recognized the rocks! So, we now have our own filmed version of the scene, with our youngest crawling in the ice cold water as Gollum, while the other teens stood on guard as Sam and Frodo. It was hilarious to make and still every time we watch it we roar with laughter.

Hiding from the Nazguls
Our expedition took us to the capital, Wellington, a pleasant town at the southern part of the North Island. Smack in the middle of the city at lovely Mt. Victoria Park was where they shot the famous scary scene where the hobbits are hiding under a tree root while the Nazguls rode just beside them. It was interesting to see how the camera can twist reality!

The ferry ride between New Zealand’s North and South Islands is amazingly beautiful!

The Film Premiere
In Wellington, you also find The Embassy Theatre where they had the world premiere for the third film in the trilogy. Of course, we had to visit this movie theatre before we took off for South Island.

South Island
The ferry ride between the two islands was absolutely breathtaking; this alone could be worth a trip to New Zealand! There are many places on the South Island to visit if you want to follow in the footsteps of Frodo, Sam, and the others but we decided to save that for another trip. Instead we spent our time here watching whales, swimming with dolphins, and visiting friends.

The whole family outside Bilbo Baggins’ home, Bag End

Family-Friendly New Zealand
From awe-inspiring scenery, the friendly and laidback locals (affectionately called kiwis), and Lord of the Rings lore…New Zealand is a fantastic spot for a family vacation. We often talk about going back, so it’s probably just a matter of time!

Maria Berkestam is a world traveler and homeschooling mom.Together with her husband and three (almost grown-up) children, she runs the Extended World Travel blog, for families considering traveling together for six months or longer. She and her husband, Magnus Drysen, also wrote the e-book Extended World Travel – How to take a break from the rat race and travel the world with your family for 6 months – or more!

 

Have you embarked on a themed trip like Maria and her family? Tell us about it in the comments below!

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Tags: Bag Ends, Hobbiton, Lord of the Rings, Matamata, Mordor, Mount Ruapehu, New Zealand, travel with teens

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This entry was posted on Thursday, August 5th, 2010 at 2:39 pm and is filed under Family Vacations. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.