{"id":597,"date":"2017-03-27T02:35:00","date_gmt":"2017-03-27T02:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.expedia.co.nz\/stories\/lord-of-the-rings-new-zealand\/"},"modified":"2022-04-21T01:37:44","modified_gmt":"2022-04-21T01:37:44","slug":"lord-of-the-rings-new-zealand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.expedia.co.nz\/stories\/lord-of-the-rings-new-zealand\/","title":{"rendered":"Exploring the real Middle Earth: Lord of the Rings Locations in New Zealand"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <em>Lord of The Rings<\/em> trilogy documented this country in ways that I, even as a local, had never seen before. And since then I\u2019ve become entirely captivated with finding and visiting these entrancing spots.<\/p>\n<p>The <em>LOTR<\/em> trilogy and <em>The Hobbit <\/em>were filmed all over New Zealand, featuring many shots of the cascading Southern Alps and wide-open spaces in the South Island. If you\u2019re a fan of the movies, here are a few places worthy of a <em>Lord of the Rings <\/em>road trip:<\/p>\n<h2>Hobbiton Film Set<\/h2>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.expedia.co.nz\/things-to-do\/hobbiton-film-set-tour.a194165.activity-details?brandcid=blog.LOTR.sophiechan_300317\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Hobbiton Film Set in Matamata<\/a> is one of the most charming and magical places in New Zealand. Peter Jackson scouted this location from a helicopter many years before filming began and knew as soon as he saw it that the location was perfect. During the two-hour guided tours, you\u2019ll get to learn about the film set, the props and the filming process. Potter around the village in The Shire, have a drink in the Green Dragon, dance under the Party Tree and visit Bag End. Any true <em>LOTR <\/em>fan cannot come to New Zealand without visiting this iconic movie set.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Lord of The Rings trilogy documented this country in ways that I, even as a local, had never seen before. And since then I\u2019ve become entirely captivated with finding and visiting these entrancing spots. The LOTR trilogy and The Hobbit were filmed all over New Zealand, featuring many shots of the cascading Southern Alps&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.expedia.co.nz\/stories\/lord-of-the-rings-new-zealand\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Exploring the real Middle Earth: Lord of the Rings Locations in New Zealand<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":1873,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,5,2,4,462],"tags":[466,467,49],"authors":[],"class_list":["post-597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-adventure","category-destination","category-experiences","category-explore","category-new-zealand","tag-lord-of-the-rings","tag-middle-earth","tag-new-zealand","entry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Exploring the real Middle Earth: Lord of the Rings Locations in New Zealand | Expedia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.expedia.co.nz\/stories\/lord-of-the-rings-new-zealand\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Exploring the real Middle Earth: Lord of the Rings Locations in New Zealand | Expedia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Lord of The Rings trilogy documented this country in ways that I, even as a local, had never seen before. And since then I\u2019ve become entirely captivated with finding and visiting these entrancing spots. 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