You know there were other films shot in New Zealand right?
By Erik Nachtrieb (SetJetters CEO & CoFounder)
Watch me write this whole blog on New Zealand Film Locations without mentioning the Lord of the Rings or The Hobbit once (That doesn’t count).
Movies and New Zealand have done an amazing job leveraging the epic environment and deep culture of Aotearoa to inspire our imaginations and desire to travel to this island nation.
I’ve filmed on New Zealand’s South Island a few times and immersing yourself in “another world” is closer than you think. Access to the remote beaches, mountains, rivers, forests, and dormant volcanoes is rather quick and painless. Have you ever walked into a cave glowing with stars? You can! Follow the scene from The Dead Lands right into one of these caves and discover the sparkles come from thousands of small worms hanging in web hammocks! But I’ll tell you more about this alien-like creature later.
When we first built SetJetters, we made it one of our early missions to log every movie filmed in New Zealand in our app. This led us to discover an incredible filmography outside of that “Peter Jackson thing” that showed off New Zealand's culture and hidden gems around the country. And I’d like to share a few of our favorite finds with you.
Whale Rider
While walking down the street of her village, Paikea (Keisha Castle-Hughes) practices a traditional Maori dance for an upcoming school performance .
Whāngārā (Whitirēia) Marae is a most stunning location, and a beautiful marae. "Marae" is a meeting place for the Ngāti Porou hapū of Ngāti Konohi. It includes a wharenui, known as Whitirēia or Waho Te Rangi. You must ask for permission to visit. It's on a private road and not generally open to the public.
Alien Covenant
Leaving the USCSS Covenant in orbit, the crew of Lander One sets down on an Earth-like planet where the expedition team tracks a mystery transmission's signal to a crashed alien ship.
Milford Sound is a fiord in the southwest of New Zealand’s South Island. It’s known for towering Mitre Peak, plus rainforests and waterfalls like Stirling and Bowen falls, which plummet down its sheer sides. The fiord is home to fur seal colonies, penguins, and dolphins.
Hunt for the Wilderpeople
Hec (Sam Neill) and Ricky (Julian Dennison) stand on top of a bald hill above a lake where Hec warns Ricky that winter is coming and the forest will be a good place to hide.
Te Henga (Bethells Beach) is a coastal community of the Auckland Region in the north of the North Island, New Zealand. The Māori name for the area "Te Henga" is in reference to the long foredunes which run along the beach and look like the "Henga" or "Gunwhale" of an upturned waka hull.
The World’s Fastest Indian
Burt Munro's (Anthony Hopkins) bike is very fast but it can't corner very well, and he drops it in the sand while attempting to corner a barrel during the beach race. While he has the fastest bike, he ends up watching the others round the barrel and head back to the finish line without him.
Ten kilometers (6.2 miles) west of Invercargill, Oreti Beach was a key location for the film 'The World's Fastest Indian', which tells the story of Southland's motorcycling hero Burt Munro. At around 26 kilometers (16 miles) in length, the beach provided Munro with a testing and racing site for his modified Indian motorcycle. In February 1957, Munro set a New Zealand Open Beach record of 211.43 kph (131.38 mph) at Oreti Beach; in 1975 he raised this to 219 kph (136 mph).
The Last Samurai
Katsumoto (Ken Watanabe) stays the execution of Captain Algren (Tom Cruise) and brings him to his Samurai mountain village to live with his family, where Algren learns the way of the Samurai.
The Ngāti Mutunga people are centered in Urenui. A few kilometers north-east is Ōkoki pā historic reserve, where the ashes of Te Rangi Hīroa (Sir Peter Buck) are interred under a stylized canoe-prow memorial. The township began as a Taranaki military settlement around the Urenui redoubt in 1865.
The Water Horse
Jimmy McGarry (Ian Harcourt) and his buddy are fishing in the loch again just before they accidentally hook into the recently released Crusoe.
With its majestic beauty, unrivaled range of activities and attractions - including shopping, award-winning food and wine, cosmopolitan nightlife and friendly Southern hospitality - Queenstown is recognized as one of the world’s most desirable destinations.
Plus, Queenstown is surrounded by a spectacular neighboring region, making it the perfect base to explore New Zealand's South Island.
The Piano
Missing the piano that was left on the beach after her arrival, Ada McGrath (Holly Hunter) and her daughter Flora (Anna Paquin) asks George Baines (Harvey Keitel) to assist her in bringing it to her new home.
Karekare is a small coastal settlement in the Auckland Region of northern New Zealand, sandwiched between the Waitākere Ranges and a large black sand surf beach. This popular destination for locals in summer has surf patrols that suggest swimming between the red and yellow flags in the summers, due to rip currents along this section of coast that are very unpredictable and can shift with little warning.
10,000 BC
At the beginning of the mountain crossing, D'leh (Steven Strait) and Tic'Tic (Cliff Curtis) debate whether or not to let a young boy from the village come with them. The boy's parents have been killed in the raid and he has nothing to lose. D'leh convinces Tic'Tic to let him come with them.
Located just 1 hour north of Queenstown Snow Farm is a backcountry hut system for winter and summer pleasures. Skiing, snowshoeing, kiting, and trekking are popular
Boy
Boy (James Rolleston) and his friends hang out and eat popsicles while he keeps an eye on what's going on across the street at the general store.
Waihau Bay is around 5 kilometers (3.1 miles) in length and with waves that usually average around 1 meter (3 feet). Typically, the best place for surfing and swimming is at the camping area located at the end of the car access to the beach. Be aware that there are many rocks and reefs on the beach, and Waihau Bay has no Surf Life Saving Club or Lifeguard patrols.
Good Bye Pork Pie
Finally arriving in Invercargill, John (Tony Barry) makes a lap of the traffic circle around the Boer War Memorial as he tries to slip the police on his final sprint to reunite with Sue (Shirley Gruar) - minus a few parts of the Mini he needed to sell along the way.
Standing in the center of Invercargill, the Boer War Memorial is a monument to honor the South African War and places you within easy access to Invercargill's excellent range of lively bars, museums and Victorian, Edwardian and Art Deco heritage buildings.
New Zealand’s southernmost city, Invercargill is the commercial hub of Southland, a mostly agricultural region of extreme natural beauty with a firm Scottish tradition dating back to the early settlers who pioneered the region.
Guns Akimbo
Miles (Daniel Radcliffe), on the run from Nix (Samara Weaving) pursuing him on a motorcycle, slams head-on into another car and is ejected through the front window.
Auckland, New Zealand is situated on two large harbors on North Island. In the center, the iconic Sky Tower has views of Viaduct Harbor full of superyachts and lined with bars and cafes. The Central Business District is bustling with leisure and retail businesses and plenty of great restaurants and bars, but there is also a lot of green space to break things up. The city’s oldest park, Auckland Domain, is centered near an extinct volcano and home to the formal Winter Gardens.
I Hate Love Storys - (For you Bollywood fans like me. Did you know 4.7% of Kiwis are from India?)
Jay Dhingra's (Imran Khan) dreams of dropping to his knees in the middle of the river and proclaiming his love to Simran (Sonam Kapoor).
The frontier town of Glenorchy is surrounded by magnificent snow-capped mountains, pristine lakes and rivers, ancient beech forests and at the edge of Mount Aspiring and Fiordland national parks, There are a range of accommodation options as well as numerous activities that will get you out into the great outdoors.
The Dead Lands
During a dream where he is visited by his Grandmother (Rena Owen), Hongi (James Rolleston) is given advice on his path forward.
Note: This scene was not shot at this location. However, while visiting New Zealand you must visit a glow worm cave! When you do you'll see why this scene and the backdrop of the cave was used in this scene. They are spectacular and if you take a photo in any of the many glowworm caves across New Zealand you will be able to get a ShotSync similar to this scene.
As a scientist (molecular biology) I’m intrigued by the natural world. As promised I’ll get back to that alien-like worm creature hanging around in a cave hammock. If you continue to follow our blog you’ll get an eclectic mix of film tourism and science from me.
The Waitomo Glowworm Caves attraction is a cave at Waitomo on the North Island of New Zealand. It is known for its population of Arachnocampa luminosa, a glow worm species found exclusively in New Zealand.
The glowworm is the name for the bioluminescent larvae of various species. The larvae of the beetle fireflies (Lampyridae), beetle larvae (Phengodidae), and of Arachnocampa, a type of fungus gnat all bioluminescence. It is these fungus gnats that can be found in massive numbers in Waitomo caves. The fungus gnat larvae cling to rock walls and hunt with long strings of sticky mucus.
If your getting over to visit any of these films scenes make sure and download SetJetters mobile app to find them and post on the apps film tourists social feed, and use #SetJetters.
