The Hobbit Film Locations Revealed: Epic New Zealand Landscapes

You can almost hear the dwarves and Bilbo plodding on... or Gandalf felling the balrog.
Taken on my previous visit.

Just before the holidays Peter Jackson released his 5th video production diary from filming of The Hobbit. Like the Lord of the Rings trilogy before it, The Hobbit is being filmed exclusively in New Zealand. The country is renowned for some of the most beautiful and varied scenery on the planet, yet is concentrated in a relatively small pair of islands. In the Video, Jackson gives us a brief glance at some of the locations, which I have deciphered below.

THE NORTH ISLAND

Hobbiton between filming of the Lord of the Rings and reconstruction for The Hobbit. 

Photo source: Wikipedia.

Hamilton

Once again the town of Hamilton is used as a base, and Hobbiton has been revived in the farming community of Matamata. This time the hobbit holes were rebuilt permanently as a gift to New Zealand’s  tourism industry (see the Hobbiton Tours website here).  This was the same location used for the Lord of The Rings, but it was torn down after filming was completed. The attraction remains open to the public now and will definitely be on my upcoming tour this month. Stay tuned for tweets and blog posts. 

Additionally, the Waihou Redwoods and Putaruru were used as filming locations for the Bywater Countryside. Read a post (with photos) from an embedded blogger during the Hobbiton shoot.

Local scenery. Taken on my previous visit.

Te Kuiti

To the west, Te Kuiti was used as another base for filming. The Denize Bluffs and Mangaotaki Valley were used for the Trollshaws setting. This landscape is located near Waitomo Caves, which is a popular tourism site to go tubing in the underground rivers and view New Zealand’s glow worms hanging from the cave ceilings above. Read another post from an embedded blogger on the film shoot.

Tongariro National Park. Source: Wikipedia.

Tongariro National Park

A location used in the original trilogy for the land of Mordor, Tongariro National Park is the home of one of New Zealand’s 9 Great Walks; the Tongariro Northern Circuit. This time around it was used for landscapes of the Long Valley and Lonely Mountains in The Hobbit.

Wellington seen from the hills above. Taken on a previous visit.

Wellington

The capital city of Wellington is located at the southern tip of New Zealand’s Northern Island. Wellington is the home of Weta Digital (Peter Jackson’s computer effects house) and Weta Worshop (the props and models—all the tangible stuff). While neither are open to the public for tours, the Weta Cave is. Also, it is common to catch famous crew members and cast about town. There are several tour companies who lead tours to Lord of the Rings locations and Hobbit sites may be added soon.  For local tours of film locations try: Flat Earth, Wellington Rover or Wellington Movie Tours. Local sights from the original trilogy include Rivendell, the Anduin River, Amon Hen, Isengard, Helm's Deep, Minas Tirith, and the spot where the Hobbits fell down the hill (Fellowship of the Ring) and landed beside the mushrooms, before the Nazgul Rider came... and many more.

THE SOUTH ISLAND

Landscape north of Nelson. Taken on a previous visit.

Nelson

Nelson is the veritable gateway to the South Island, coming from Wellington. It also makes a great base to explore the Abel Tasman National Park, site of another of New Zealand’s Great Walks (view photos from Abel Tasman here and read about the Abel Tasman track here). The Forest River scenes in The Hobbit were filmed near Nelson at Pelorus Bridge.

Scenery from nearby Abel Tasman, taken on my last visit.

Takaka

West of Nelson and just outside of Abel Tasman National Park, Takaka was another base for filming. Takaka Hill was used as landscape for the Westfarthing Countryside and Weatherhills. To the extreme northwest, the wild Golden Bay, and Golden Downs also featured.

Lake Pukaki. Source: Wikipedia.

Twizel

South of Nelson and Takaka, Twizel was another base for filming, where the Shores of Laketown were shot at New Zealand’s famous Lake Pukaki. The fields of Gondor in Return of the King were also shot in the areas. For tours, try Discovery Tours.

Queenstown's 'Remarkable' mountains hovering over the airport.

Make no mistake, Peter Jackson's 'Misty Mountains' will be misty.

Taken on a previous trip.

Queenstown

Queenstown is New Zealand’s gorgeous souther adventure capital (it’s home to the world famous AJ Hackett bungee jumping empire). Much of the country’s most dramatic mountain scenery is easily accessible from Queenstown (including Milford Sound), so this was understandably both an important spot for filming the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit movies. For helicopter tours of locations for the Misty Mountains, Ford of Bruinen, Isengard and many more Middle Earth spots, try Heliworks. Alternatively, try Dart Stables for horseback riding to locations from the Lord of the Rings, Chronicles of Narnia and X-Men Wolverine.

There were more filming locations around Queenstown than I can count or decipher, but here are a few for The Hobbit:

Paradise, Paradise Trust, and Arcadia Station were all used as locations for the Outskirts of Bree. Speargrass Flat and Wanaka comprised the Lonelands. Glenorchy Sheelite and spots all around Queenstown were used for Wildlands scenery. The Remarkables, a spectacular mountain range overlooking Queenstown, was used for scenery in Lord of the Rings, and is used once again in The Hobbit for the Misty Mountains.

Dunedin. Source: Wikipedia.

Dunedin

On the west coast of the South Island is Dunedin, another base for filming. The town is famous for colonies of penguins, sea lions and fur seals. North in the countryside, a picturesque Rock & Pillar Range and Middlemarch were used as filming locations for the movie’s Dale Hills. Nearby Hartfield and Strath Taieri comprised additional ‘Epic Landscapes.’

Peter Jackson's 5th Video Diary, detailing some of these locations. Unfortunately its very difficult to watch this due to the slow bandwidth in the country where I am currently located, but hopefully you fare better!

NOTE: I’ll begin Tweeting on January 12 from New Zealand, and will post blog entries as time allows. I’ll be visiting several of the locations above too, so expect more. Follow me minute by minute on Twitter: @FishEggTree. For more information on travel in New Zealand, please also visit Tourism New Zealand.