Ringer Spy GC sends in more info on the Upper Hutt Set:

Hutt River Location

Turns out the ‘set’ is on Craigs Flats, a plateau on the far bank of the Hutt River, above the earthquake fault scarp, on private land. There is nothing much there apart from the lights, reflector boards, cameras and a large marquee. They had the lights blazing away at 7:10am today.

On the near side of the river, next to the road, is a small village labelled “Jamb, Make-up, Costumes, WETA”. This is cordoned off by security guards and concealed from close view by the natural landscape, although it’s possible to see the tents and vans from a distance.

It’s only 5 minutes drive from Dry Creek Quarry (Helm’s Deep) so maybe one of your camera-capable spies from there could help out with photos.

The picture shows Craigs Flats as the green, grassy plateau just above halfway up the right hand edge. This is where they are filming. The darker earthquake fault scarp between the plateau and the river is clearly visible.

PS: Anyone commuting between the ‘dressing rooms’ and the set has to cross the Moonshine Bridge.

I like pairing up images from different sources, and the recent lunar eclipse in NZ brought the same thought to a number of people who emailed me: Will they use this in the movies? Strangely enough, the red moon was seen more clearly in Wellington than anywhere else. Scoop reminded me they had the best image here and it certainly wouldn’t be out of place next to this

Stuff reports that sentencing has been given to the individual found guilty of stealing LotR movie footage. More here.

Apparently there was trouble ordering it…but we’ve got a useful link now in the shop section, thanks to Jesse.

Recently we helped a French Tolkien fan find the Wingate set, and he sent us this report:

“… since last tuesday I`ve found the location and it`s really great. Hey you know there is a big blue screen with some ruines; all the set is in the water like a river. Tuesday they was shooting scenes with six horses, one with Gandalf the White, another with Aragorn, Legolas, Merry, Pippin and Gimli.

The costumes are so great.

They have shoot an other scene with only Aragorn and Gandalf. Yesterday I went to wingate but I`ve just stay one hour because the security guard told me that the crew could call the police. I just saw they were shooting a scene like Tuesday but gandalf was talking. I hope today and the other day I could watch interesting scenes….thanks a lot for your help.

Thanks to Didier for that.