New book showcases the magnificence of ‘Middle-earth’ New Zealand

Ever since The Lord of the Rings first appeared on the big screen, many of us wanted to travel to New Zealand and visit movie locations. A few years ago, this dream became reality for me. I went to New Zealand in order to explore the country, its culture and everything in between. My idea was to travel as independently as possible while trying to explore New Zealand’s hidden Middle-earth. One of the most useful resources, if not the most useful one, was for me Ian Brodie’s The Lord of the Rings Location Guidebook. Everything you need to visit former movie sets is in there. Now a new location guidebook for The Hobbit is on its way!

The press release tells you everything you need to know:

Since the incredible global success of the Lord of the Rings films and now The Hobbit trilogy, New Zealand has become the embodiment of Middle-earth to millions of moviegoers and readers worldwide.

‘I understand why that has happened,’ says the films’ creator, Peter Jackson in his foreword to Ian Brodie’s new book The Hobbit Motion Picture Trilogy Location Guidebook. ‘For me, Bag End, The Green Dragon, Bilbo’s Party Tree and the Mill at Bywater were inextricably nestled within the lee of a hill on a farm in Matamata.’

In his new book, The Hobbit Motion Picture Trilogy Location Guidebook, Ian Brodie showcases these landscapes and others which became the principal movie-set locations around New Zealand as seen in the movie trilogy. The book shares valuable background information and exclusive anecdotes about the filming of the trilogy, new maps and location directions, GPS references, useful Internet addresses and up-to-date information on accommodation and restaurants handy to the sites. Included in both guides are quotes from the cast and crew.

This book is jam-packed with hundreds of images including Ian Brodie’s atmospheric landscape shots of the locations and photographs from the filming of the movie trilogy. For New Zealanders it stands a reminder of how beautiful our country is; for tourists the book will become a true take-home memento of a journey through the unforgettable scenery that has now become Middle-earth.

Author, Ian Brodie is an award-winning photographer. His love of his native New Zealand, film, travel and photography has combined to produce some remarkable books and images. He has written 18 books to date, including The Lord of the Rings Location Guide and Cameras in Narnia which were both published on the international stage and met considerable success The Lord of the Rings Location Guides, first published in 2001, have sold in excess of 380,000 copies in New Zealand alone.

Ian’s images have appeared in travel articles, magazines and books around the world. In 2005 he was awarded an MNZM for services to tourism and writing. Even for a landscape photographer with so many years experience behind him, Ian was surprised by the paths he travelled as he followed the movie makers’ steps to photograph the landscape for the book.

‘What amazed me were the other places they used,’ he says, ‘places are off the beaten track like Kaihoka that are truly gems of New Zealand. That’s been my aim as well, to share my love of New Zealand through images.’

The Hobbit Motion Picture Trilogy Location Guidebook will be published in early November.