NEW ZEALAND

Lights, Camera ... Impact?
by Sally McKinney

PLANETA FORUM

Focus on New Zealand Ecotourism synthesizes nature tourism and ecotourism in this Pacific nation.

PHOTO GALLERY: Ferns

By filming The Lord of the Rings (LOTR) in New Zealand, director Peter Jackson has used the country's stunning landscapes to provide a sense of reality for his fantasy blockbusters.

Fiordland National Park and other gorgeous locations are likely to turn film fans into tourists. Eco travelers will be increasingly challenged to weigh the positive benefits from traveling to wild places against damaging environmental costs.

New Line Cinema used more than 100 locations on New Zealand's two main islands while filming the trilogy, and 28 of these locations are in national parks or reserves. Tongariro National Park, a volcanic field with rocks, steam vents, and scoria, became the mythic Land of Moria. The celluloid transformation uses a place which nature took 500,000 years to craft.

New Zealand's Department of Conservation (DOC) has the responsibility for issuing permits to filmmakers says spokesman Harry Maher. Three Foot Six, Ltd., the production company for the movies, was also given lists of restrictions.

Even before 2002 ended, the international arrivals to New Zealand had passed two million visitors a year. Building on the world-wide popularity of the series, the New Zealand tourist industry has directed a massive promotion at overseas visitors. Air New Zealand expects "The Frodo", a Boeing 747-400 decorated with LOTR images, to fly 2.5 million miles by December, 2003.

"Unfortunately," says Lisa Mastny in the report Traveling Light, "air transport is one of the world's fastest-growing sources of emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases responsible for global climate change." She also quotes World Trade Organization estimates that "as much as 90 percent of a tourist's energy consumption is spent getting to and from the destination."

Where New Zealand is concerned, more visitors now travel there from longer distances. From nearby Australia, the percentage dropped 1.4%. But from distant United Kingdom, the numbers traveling to New Zealand have gone up 11.1%. From across the Pacific, more people came from Japan, Korea, China, and Taiwan. (See NZ Tourism Information)

SPOTLIGHT ON TOUR COMPANIES

In J.R.R. Tolkien's classic story, the pleasure-loving Hobbits -- a force for sustaining the environment -- enjoy a simple lifestyle and tread lightly on the earth. Rings Scenic Tours can show visitors remnants of the Hobbiton set, a location selected for its lovely, rural landscapes, and perhaps the visit will inspire people to simplify their lifestyles.

Fans remember that mythic ecotourists Frodo and Sam traveled mainly on foot, wrapping themselves in cloaks, and sleeping on the ground (and perhaps in trees!) A company called Hiking New Zealand takes small groups on eco-sensitive tours in different regions. Hiking New Zealand tours visit two locations used in filming LOTR, Tongariro National Park, and Kahurangi National Park. "The safaris give the same sense of fellowship and adventure as the film," says spokesman Mark Brabyn.

Clearly, people need to experience wild places so they can become motivated to conserve them. Taste a wild strawberry, listen to a cooing pigeon, admire a tiny green orchid ... you can't get these experiences inside a tour bus. Awkwardly, mass transport insulates travelers from the very environment they wish to experience.

In Tolkien's classic story, the orcs and other evil creatures, moving en masse, use their energies for destruction and death. Novel readers will recall the litter left by evil hordes in "The Two Towers." It's Aragorn, a friend of the Hobbits, who notices "things that had been dropped or cast away: food bags, the rings and crusts of hard grey bread, a torn black cloak, a heavy iron-nailed shoe." (from LOTR, Part 2)

On a LOTR-themed motorcoach tour, visitors can now view scenery from all three films with Red Carpet Tours. They also see other New Zealand highlights: Bay of Islands, Rotorua, West Coast Glaciers, and Milford Sound. The company does take visitors into national parks and reserves using permits from the DOC. There's also time to take jet boat rides, or even go bungy jumping, according to the company.

PROTECTING THE ATTRACTIONS

It takes time and effort to experience New Zealand's natural beauty by walking to hidden, mirror lakes; paddling through mangrove estuaries; or exploring moving glaciers. Air New Zealand now encourages people to view "Middle-earth by air, "the fastest way". "Almost 90 per cent of the airline's 44 domestic Express Class routes fly over locations used in filming of the epic ..." says a news release.

"It took 90 years for New Zealand to reach its first million visitors per annum," claims Tourism New Zealand chief executive George Hickton. It took "only a decade for it to attract a million more."

He adds a warning. "We want to make sure that New Zealand always benefits from tourism and that we do not harm what attracted visitors here in the first place -- our stunning environment."

AUTHOR

Sally McKinney is travel writer who continues to explore the world with the same enthusiasm she felt at age eleven when pedaling her bicycle into unknown countryside. The author of Adventures in Nature: New Zealand can be reached via email

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