"The set constructions are no longer in place -- but visitors can still stand on a special spot in which part of the film was made. It's a great excuse to explore some of the most beautiful places in the world."
In contrast, British Tourist Authority attempts to cash in have been stymied by a dispute over where Englishman Tolkien set his blockbusting book.
Some felt Sarehole Mill in Moseley, Tolkien's Midlands childhood playground, inspired the Shire, home of the gentle Hobbits.
Lancashire historians thought otherwise, saying Tolkien wrote most of the Rings cycle at Stonyhurst College in the northwest England county.
Hobbiton was based on the village of Hurst Green, they argued.
The British Tourist Authority wanted consensus, as it had planned a Tolkien map of Britain in capture any increased visitor interest after the release of the first part of Jackson's multimillion dollar project.
Britons may not take kindly to the Waikato town of Matamata usurping the role of Hobbiton but the battle could be all but over, if the views of Rings actor Elijah Wood are any guide.
Wood, an American who played the heroic Hobbit Frodo Baggins, praised New Zealand locations used in the film.
"The first thing I thought was: this is Middle Earth. It has every sort of geographical, geological formation and landscape -- it's got everything," he said.
In a rare interview Tolkien, who died in 1973, spoke of the hamlet of Sarehole, now part of Birmingham, as his inspiration.
He moved there with his widowed mother in 1896.
"It was a kind of lost paradise," The Times newspaper quoted him as saying.
"There was an old mill that really did grind corn. With two millers, a great big pond with swans on it, a sandpit, a wonderful dell with flowers, a few old-fashioned village houses and, farther away, a stream with another mill. I took the idea of the Hobbits from the village people and the children."
But maps and directions laid out in his detailed fantasy world also pointed to the Ribble Valley in Lancashire, The Times said.
According to that theory, Hobbiton was Hurst Green village, while the River Shirebourn was named after the Shireburn family who built the Stonyhurst estate.
"Follow the map of Clitheroes fields and, it is claimed, you can trace Frodo Baggins' route across the Shire, through the Old Forest and on towards the Crack of Doom," The Times said.
"The Old Forest is then not Birminghams Moseley bog after all but the conifer groves of Clitheroes Mitton Wood."
Birmingham Museum boss Graham Allen was in no doubt that his city was the true home of the Rings.
"Sarehole is Tolkien country and the author himself said as much. I don't know why they bothered to go to New Zealand to make the film when the locations are here," he told The Times.
Tourism New Zealand has laid out a detailed The Lord of the Rings film road trip -- while throwing in "distractions" tourists should see on the way.
It suggested starting in Auckland, and going to Matamata to see "Hobbiton", then on to Tongariro National Park, which contained the Slopes of Mt Doom.
Kaitoke Regional Park, a bush area 12km from Upper Hutt, north of Wellington, was Rivendell and the River Anduin, while Wellington was noted as home of "the master himself, Peter Jackson".
"The Wellington region was widely used in the movie from the woods of central Mt Victoria, where shooting first began, through to Fort Dorset in seaside Seatoun became Bree," it said.
"You could sit in the same chair as any of the actors in the film by lunching at one of the cafes in the Miramar area near (Jackson's) Weta Workshop.
"Two Rooms and Eva Dixon's Place in Miramar and The Chocolate Fish in Scorching Bay became regular haunts of many of the film's cast and crew.
"Or you could try surfing at nearby Lyall Bay -- where Liv Tyler (Arwen), Elijah Wood (Frodo), Sean Bean (Boromir), Sean Astin (Sam Gamgee) Dominic Monaghan (Merry), Billy Boyd (Pippin) and Orlando Bloom (Legolas) became part of the local surfie set."
Nelson was touted as home to Mt Owen, the scene for the Dimrill Dale hillside, while Twizel's Ben Ohau sheep station was said to be cinematically significant in the trilogy.
Further south, Queenstown was the setting for numerous scenes including the Summit of Amon Hen, while nearby Glenorchy was the setting for the slopes of Amon Hen and Lothlorien.
- NZPA
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