This is what we've been waiting to hear as far as locations go. It's the ultimate Mordor location....if the Dept. of Conservation had turned down ThreeFootSix's application to film on Ruapehu we would have had to make do with some cheap imitation of this magnificent and bizarre landscape. (According to D.o.C. staff I spoke to, they'd already done some filming up there. Hm.)
The full story is over at Scoop news website. Quick off the mark as usual.