As we saw in Peter Jackson’s 6th Production Video, New Zealand doesn’t do things by halves. When The Hobbit cast and crew got rained out of their location filming at the Pelorus Bridge in Nelson, they really got rained out.
“While we were at Pelorus,” director Peter Jackson said, “Our location shooting came to a pretty dramatic end because the police arrived and said they were about to issue a severe weather warning.
“I’ve never seen a crew pack up their gear so quickly,” he said. “The very next day, everywhere where we were standing, where our equipment was, our cameras, our actors, the director, was under flood water.
“The rise in the river level was like twenty or thirty feet.”
Because they had to leave Nelson a little earlier than they had planned, Jackson’s 3 Foot 7 production company tiptoed back into town to film for two days at Canaan Downs at Takaka Hill.
Ceris Price, the publicist for the company, said, “It was the two days that we didn’t do when it rained. It went very well. It was absolutely stunning, beautiful weather.”
Canaan Downs Panorama by Dobiwallah
