This from someone in the know:
The Royal New Zealand Amry is unable to help with Lord of the Rings production any more. Most likely due to their heavy commitment in East Timor, so a couple of thousand extras are going to have to be dug up from somewhere else.
Word has it that the NZ were going to help with the large battle scenes, now with them being commisioned to move to East Timor (or so we think) who will PJ get now?
Thanks to Dynamo for the scoop!