Welcome to Middle Earth!

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Confession.  I never liked the Lord of the Rings or Hobbit films.  My grandfather gave me the Tolkien novels when I was just a little too young to deal with sooo many words, written so small.  As it happens, I recently rediscovered this volume that I’d packed away a couple of decades earlier.
I only went to the films to see the scenery, and to try to match up various Middle Earth landscapes with the New Zealand real life film sets.  When the first one came out, I was a home sick Kiwi expat living in Prague.  After seeing it, I felt that maybe I was a bit of a Tourism NZ cheerleader, telling anyone who’d listen just how much like New Zealand Middle Earth was!  Many of the landscapes are instantly recognisable, but just without the castles, marauding armies, or scary creatures CGI’d in.

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A few years later, Helen and I flew into Wellington “the Middle of Middle Earth” airport and were quite surprised by the heavy theming.  They really do take it seriously in this part of Middle Earth!  I guess it helps that Wellington is the home of director Peter Jackson and his special effects company Weka Workshops.

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The LOTR and Hobbit films were filmed all over New Zealand, although I most often associate the scenery with high country and mountain landscapes.  A few weeks back I was in need of some peaceful serenity, and Middle Earth seemed like as good a place as any for it.

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