A recent CNN story about film tourism featured a woman who enjoyed two guided tours of LOTR film locations. Of course I was curious to know whether the woman, Michele Maro, had taken the Red Carpet tours that are advertised on TORN. A chat to RC tour director Vic James confirmed that indeed Michele had enjoyed her Red Carpet experience so much that she’d returned for a second tour – and she’s not the only one to have done that. “You’d be surprised how many people come back because they want to do the tour again to meet new LOTR friends or see New Zealand in a different season,” James says.
Category: Tours
When Michele Maro became captivated by “The Lord of the Rings” movies, she never imagined she would one day be walking around in the Shire, touring Hobbiton and peeking into hobbit holes. Those are all fictional places, but fans can visit the closest thing possible in New Zealand, where the trilogy was filmed and where specially designed tours will take visitors to some of the stunning locations featured in the movies. Maro, who lives in St. Petersburg, Florida, spent two weeks in New Zealand in 2003 being guided around forests, national parks and farms, exploring sites that she didn’t think were real when she first saw them on the big screen. More…
The March 20th edition of the WETA Newsletter mentions TORN and our ‘Cruise to Middle-earth’ vacation we posted about earlier in the year. Ringers on the cruise stopped by the WETA Cave for a very special treat. From the newsletter: “Our friends from T.O.R.N visit the Weta Cave – On a Cruise To Middle-Earth, a large group of Tolkien fans from TheOneRing.Net came to visit us. It was a real pleasure to have you here and to show you around. It takes a special kind of fan to travel all the way to little New Zealand. In the photo you also see Richard Taylor, Tania Rodger and Daniel Falconer who hosted the group on their visit.”
Aaron writes: I have put forward a Naming Proposal to the NZ Geographic Board to name a stretch of the Upper Waiau River between Lakes Manapouri and Te Anau as “Anduin Reach“. This section was not only featured strongly in the Fellowship of the Ring but it is now a tourist attraction as well, soon to be more popular as a new Cycle Trail is destined to run down it’s bank. I need some assistance from the public in the form of feedback as part of the new naming procedure so I thought I should ask your team what they think. The “reach” is a two km (1.25 miles) straight stretch of river down stream of Boulder Reach 6km North of Manapouri Township. All I need is some public feed back to forward to the Geographic Board so they know that people value the need for a name.
It is said if you give a story a place name it lives in the real world and I think the Anduin Reach has got a fighting chance to earn a real place in New Zealand’s folklore. If any one else wants to add to this submission just comment at 2359510@gmail.com or on my YouTube Video Scrapbook Page.
Continue reading “‘Anduin Reach’ Naming Effort..You Can Help!”
Vic James from Red Carpet Tours reports that there has been an enthusiastic response from LOTR fans wanting to join Red Carpet Tours’ ‘Hobbit Premiere Tour of New Zealand’ in December, 2011. It will be a great time to be in Middle Earth! Last October’s Red Carpet LOTR Sketching Tour with calligrapher , map maker and artist Daniel Reeve, was a most enjoyable experience for those who participated – a report of the tour is on Daniel’s website. Daniel has agreed to repeat the tour and September 28th to October 10th is favoured for this to happen. Those interested can email Vic James, Red Carpet Tours, directly at
Garfeimao here, finally over my jet lag, mostly unpacked, and sort of caught up at work now. This is going to be a bit of a review of the Cruise portion of the Cruise to Middle earth, with part 2 containing the review of Land excursions and part 3 containing the many thanks I need say.
Welcome to the Celebrity Millennium, our home during the Cruise to Middle-earth as it sailed from Auckland, New Zealand to Sydney, Australia. Continue reading “Cruise to Middle earth, the review (part 1)”