The Lord of the Rings Location: Te Anau
This small town at the edge of Lake Te Anau and the massive
Fiordland National Park was a base for several of
The Two Towers locations including the Great River Anduin and Fangorn Forest. Given the extremely high rainfall in the region (over 400 inches a year in some parts of the park), both wetlands and dense, moss covered rainforest are features of the area. The Waiau River, which flows between Lake Te Anau and Lake Manapouri, became Anduin for part of the fellowship's journey, prior to their arrival at the Brown Lands. Towering above the deep blue waters of Lake Manapouri, near Te Anau, the bushclad Kepler mountains provided another spectacular location. Amid their peaks, the remote Norwest Lakes were used to represent the rugged country south of Rivendell. The opening sequence of the Flight to the Ford, showing Arwen and Frodo fleeing from the Black Riders, was also filmed here. This location can be visited with
Heliworks on their 5 hour flight.
Northeast of Te Anau, off the main Te Anau highway, are the scenic Mavora Lakes. It's a rugged 39km journey down an unsealed road to reach this remote and tranquil region, which provided the locations for Fangorn Forest and for Nen Hithoel (the Lake of Many Mists). It was here that the fellowship moored at the end of their journey down the Anduin, and before camping at Amon Hen. The forest around the lakes was used for the scenes where Merry and Pippin hid from the Orcs, and where Frodo took cover from the Uruk-hai. The junction of the Silverlode and Anduin Rivers was also filmed at Mavora, near the swingbridge where the Mararoa River leaves the South Mavora.
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