I’ve spent the last three weeks wandering around the South Island in a lot of places where filming is taking place, and quite a few where it isn’t. Did I spot any film stars? Well, not to my knowledge. But everywhere I hiked, climbed, swam and flew, the great LOTR project was leaving its mark on people and places.

When I wasn’t chatting to people about the film, I was taking photos of the landscapes that will, as near as I can judge, be Middle-earth in the eyes of the world.

Over the next few weeks I’ll post a series of pictures and reports on the places I saw and the things I found.