Hobbiton sits on a working sheep farm Peter Jackson chose for the Shire, with 44 hobbit holes, Bag End and the Green Dragon Inn all maintained as permanent, walk-through sets rather than props struck after filming.
Mt Ngāuruhoe, digitally altered on screen into Mount Doom, sits within view along most of the Tongariro Alpine Crossing, giving non-hikers in the group a roadside look and hikers the chance to walk through Mordor itself.
Mt Victoria, just outside the city centre, doubled for the outskirts of the Shire and the refuge of Rivendell, while Kaitoke Regional Park, a short drive out, was Rivendell’s riverside scenes. Weta Workshop’s tours cover the practical effects, armour and creature work behind the trilogy, a good counterpoint for anyone more interested in the filmmaking than the landscapes.
Mt Sunday stood in for Edoras, capital of Rohan; the set, which took nine months to build, was fully removed after filming, but the isolated hill and braided river valley around it look exactly as dramatic as they do on screen. A return walk of around 4km, roughly 90 minutes, reaches the summit.
The Battle of the Pelennor Fields was filmed on private land outside Twizel, with the open grassland still recognisable from the film; a local guide or the Peace Ring sculpture, set up specifically for photos on the actual site, makes it accessible without trespassing. Lake Pukaki, on the way, doubled as Laketown in The Hobbit, with Aoraki/Mt Cook itself standing in for the Lonely Mountain on a clear day.
The beech forest on the road to Paradise was Lothlórien, while the open valley around Glenorchy doubled as Isengard; both sit close enough to Queenstown for a half-day trip, with Skippers Canyon, where Arwen’s flood scene was filmed, addable as a 4WD extension for anyone wanting more.
Blanket Bay sits on the lake’s edge at the base of the Richardson Mountains, with reclaimed timber construction and stone fireplaces throughout. Booking the lodge for exclusive use puts the whole property, main lodge and private chalets, in the family’s hands for the remainder of the stay, a deliberate change of pace after six days on the road.
A flexible day: golf at one of the nearby Queenstown courses, a treatment at the lodge spa, or a private tasting in the Wine Cave for those who’d rather stay close to home base.
The TSS Earnslaw, launched in 1912 the same year as the Titanic, is the only coal-fired passenger steamship still operating in the Southern Hemisphere. The 45-minute crossing to Walter Peak ends at a working high-country farm, sheepdog demonstrations, animal encounters and a gourmet BBQ or dinner at the lakeside Colonel’s Homestead, an outing that works for every generation in the group at once.
Jet boating on the Dart or Shotover for those after more adrenaline, a wander through Arrowtown’s gold-mining era streets for a gentler pace, or a helicopter flight over the Routeburn and Mt Aspiring for anyone wanting the big view.
The lodge’s Wine Cave is set up for exactly this: a private, personalised tasting and dinner built around the occasion, with cocktails and canapés beforehand in the Great Room.
