I've just seen the trailer for The Hobbit, the latest JRR Tolkien-based movie, and it's revived the vow to visit New Zealand I made after The Lord of the Rings trilogy. This probably makes me sound like a geek but is it possible to visit the film locations for The Hobbit and for the trilogy?
You're not alone. The first three Lord of the Rings movies have been called a nine-hour advertisement for New Zealand and the term "Tolkien tourism" was coined to explain why visits to the country went up 40 per cent between 2000 (the year before the first film was released) and 2006. The Hobbit is sure to reinforce that.
Start with The Lord Of The Rings Location Guidebook (www.aotearoa.co.nz/lotr.htm), a local bestseller that details where each outdoor scene was filmed. Because much of the filming was on conservation land, the Department of Conservation has also created a list that matches scenes in the trilogy to actual locations (www.doc.govt.nz/parks-and-recreation/places-to-visit/lord-of-the-rings-locations).
The film-makers are trying to keep The Hobbit's locations under wraps but thanks to the openness of New Zealand's planning permit system, we know that they are filming at the head of Lake Wakatipu, near Queenstown in the South Island. That is no surprise: the area was the setting for Isengard and the Forest of Lothlorien in the trilogy.
Nomad Safaris (www.nomadsafaris.co.nz/safari-of-the-scenes.html) runs two "Safari of the Scenes" tours out of Queenstown, which include seeing (from afar) some of the outdoor film sets of The Hobbit. The better one is to Glenorchy and Paradise at the head of Lake Wakatipu.
Heading north, the trilogy sites in Canterbury, such as Edoras in the beautiful Rangitata valley, can be visited with Hassle Free Tours (www.hasslefreetours.co.nz) out of Christchurch. They bring along movie props such as flags and swords to wave around, which is good because the film crew did such a good job rehabilitating the site that you'd never know the capital of Rohan had ever been there.
Because Sir Peter Jackson's production company is based in Wellington, it has many sites that can be visited within a few hours. The tree roots where the Hobbits hid from the ring wraith in the first movie is a popular site for photographs and can be visited with Flat Earth tours (www.flatearth.co.nz).
While you're in the capital, visit Weta Workshop (www.wetanz.com) to see how the special effects were created.
Mount Doom is based on the less pronouncable Mount Ngauruhoe in the central North Island. The Tongariro Crossing, a 20km route described as one of the best single-day hikes in the world, takes you onto the mountain's flanks.
In the sheep country of Matamata, a little farther north, you'll find Hobbiton. Hobbiton Movie Set And Farm Tours (www.hobbitontours.com) can take you there.
There's plenty to keep the geeks happy as they go there and back again.
Do you have travel questions or queries? E-mail them to us at travel@thenational.ae
Test
Director: S Sashikanth
Cast: Nayanthara, Siddharth, Meera Jasmine, R Madhavan
Star rating: 2/5
Know your cyber adversaries
Cryptojacking: Compromises a device or network to mine cryptocurrencies without an organisation's knowledge.
Distributed denial-of-service: Floods systems, servers or networks with information, effectively blocking them.
Man-in-the-middle attack: Intercepts two-way communication to obtain information, spy on participants or alter the outcome.
Malware: Installs itself in a network when a user clicks on a compromised link or email attachment.
Phishing: Aims to secure personal information, such as passwords and credit card numbers.
Ransomware: Encrypts user data, denying access and demands a payment to decrypt it.
Spyware: Collects information without the user's knowledge, which is then passed on to bad actors.
Trojans: Create a backdoor into systems, which becomes a point of entry for an attack.
Viruses: Infect applications in a system and replicate themselves as they go, just like their biological counterparts.
Worms: Send copies of themselves to other users or contacts. They don't attack the system, but they overload it.
Zero-day exploit: Exploits a vulnerability in software before a fix is found.
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NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
The National's picks
4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
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7pm: Flood Zone
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At a glance
Global events: Much of the UK’s economic woes were blamed on “increased global uncertainty”, which can be interpreted as the economic impact of the Ukraine war and the uncertainty over Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Growth forecasts: Cut for 2025 from 2 per cent to 1 per cent. The OBR watchdog also estimated inflation will average 3.2 per cent this year
Welfare: Universal credit health element cut by 50 per cent and frozen for new claimants, building on cuts to the disability and incapacity bill set out earlier this month
Spending cuts: Overall day-to day-spending across government cut by £6.1bn in 2029-30
Tax evasion: Steps to crack down on tax evasion to raise “£6.5bn per year” for the public purse
Defence: New high-tech weaponry, upgrading HM Naval Base in Portsmouth
Housing: Housebuilding to reach its highest in 40 years, with planning reforms helping generate an extra £3.4bn for public finances
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5