New Zealand is Lord of the Rings country! It's where the movie trilogy of The Lord of the Rings was filmed!

I had been learning English for 2 years, though only gradually. And so I began to think of having a homestay abroad. I was looking for a good place, and The Lord of the Rings was showing in Japan. I got interested in the story and more importantly I was moved by the landscape in the movie. So I got interested in New Zealand, where the move was made. It was an English-speaking country and it seemed to be a safe country! And it is supposed to have beautiful nature, it was summer season and there was a direct fright between two island nations. In addition, it had a sort of similar shape to Japan! For these reasons, I decided that New Zealand was the destination for my first trip abroad alone.

As soon as I watched the movie "The Lord of the Rings-The Fellowship of the Rings", I became a big fan of it. Especially Viggo Mortensen, who played the role of a mysterious man in the film was really great. The word "perfect" might just be the right word to describe him. It seemed like he just stepped out of the pages of original book! In addition, the movie series were filmed in New Zealand and there were lots of the beautiful natural scenery in the movie. I found the movie breath taking. Of course Viggo was also a very good-looking guy and that's what got me into the movie to begin with!

The first film in "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy was shown in Japan in 2002. 2 years have passed since the release of "The Return of the King", which is the last part of the trilogy of "The Lord of the Rings". But I'm still into the film! In the last visit to New Zealand, I went to Christchurch and Queenstown in the South Island and joined three Lord od the Rings location tours. However, there still remains lots of locations which I really want to visit in the North Island. So this time, I decided that I would go to the North Island. The reason of traveling to the North Island was to visit every location site.