Lecture: New Zealand - There & back again at MAGICCON

The X marks the treasure

15. January 2022

Published by Robert Eiba at 13. January 2022

MagicCon 5 | Vortrag | Neuseeland - There & Back Again | Dirk Drabicki

New Zealand / The Lord of the Rings – Adventure Trip

For three weeks I (Dirk Drabicki) was on the road in New Zealand to see the country and also various filming locations of the three Lord of the Rings and also the Hobbit films.

I ended up visiting at least 20 different locations, including Hobbiton, Edoras and Mount Doom.

This was a lifelong dream come true for me and I want to share it with you.

Even the journey itself turned out to be an adventure, because the first Corona cases were just coming up and I also had to deal with a few restrictions on location.

In the end, however, everything went well and I was able to get to know a fascinating country that is incredibly diverse and where it is possible to swim on the beach, dig in the snow, see volcanic deserts and experience fjords.

I did a lot of hiking and covered over 4,000 km in total.

This is an experience report of the trip, with a strong focus on the locations with tips, recommendations and advice if you are planning to take on the adventure in the future as well.

Lecturer: Dirk Drabicki

Duration: 60 min - The Lecture will be held in: german

In class 5 we had book presentations and a classmate introduced us to this green book he was reading from. A little hobbit was wounded on the weather peak ... and I was hooked.

I read The Lord of the Rings at the age of 11 and since then this world has never let me go.

Even through the films a decade later, the Shire and Middle Earth in particular have become a happy place. And after I wanted to visit all these places not only in fantasy, computer and pen & paper games (MERS!), I was able to fulfil my lifelong dream of travelling to New Zealand (with a big focus on the filming locations).

In addition, I have been an enthusiastic con-goer at the FedCon Events conventions since 2011 and have also been a hard-working helper at the check-in for a few years now, so the recent leap behind the scenes is almost a natural one.