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Things To Do in Queenstown

Paradise Found LOTR tour

  • Info & Track Centre, Queenstown
    Queenstown
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Paradise Found LOTR tour

  • stomps from Houston
  • April 21, 2006
Oliphaunts!More Photos
You'd be hard pressed to spend a good amount of time in New Zealand and not meet someone who was somehow involved in the production of the Lord of the Rings. Everyone you meet seems to be so proud of their area's involvement in the film, and the people of Queenstown are no exception. The cast and crew of LOTR spent a fair amount of time in Queenstown, filming various sections of the film and bungee jumping between scenes!

Our tour guide was not directly involved with the filming; however, she had friends that were. She was very knowledgeable about both the area, having lived there her whole life, and the movies, and was extremely amiable. We all had a running conversation the entire trip, which was impressive since there were probably only about six people total on the tour.

We were picked up around 8.30am from our assorted accommodations. First, went around Lake Wakatipu on a road that offered absolutely beautiful views of the lake and the mountains beyond, one of which, Mt. Earnslaw, was the one seen at the very beginning of The Two Towers. We learned about the history of Queenstown, and the road we were on. It was interesting to know that not many years before, the road we were driving on wasn't even paved!

The actual Lord of the Rings part of the tour started when we made it to Twelve Mile Delta, a large camping area. After a short hike, we found ourselves standing in the exact place that Sam and Frodo laid down on to watch the oliphaunts walking by in TTT. After a bit of a story about the filming, we moved back to the van and on to the next location (after all, we had a fair amount of ground to cover in a half-day tour!)

The next location was not a set from the Lord of the Rings; however, we went on a very nice 2k hike through the woods and got to see some pretty nice scenery. On the way back to the main road, we stopped and got to see the location where Peter Jackson superimposed Isengard, which was pretty spectacular in itself. We then went out into a wooded area around a lake, aptly named Paradise, where Lothlorien was set and where Viggo Mortensen often liked to go fishing. While we didn't get to see the actual set, being 50 miles or so away in another part of the woods, it was still nice to say I've been to Paradise!

We stopped for a nice lunch before heading back to Queenstown by 1:30pm, where I was to catch another LOTR tour. I enjoyed myself thoroughly on this trip; I'll say it again, the guide was brilliant. The price wasn't bad either--$130 for this and the Deer Park tour. And people wonder whether the scenery in LOTR was made up, but after this tour, you will know for sure that New Zealand actually is that beautiful!
From journal Adventures in Queenstown