This LOTR tour is *everything*! - First off, in the historic Queenstown tradition, I flipped a coin to decide which tour guide gets "top billing" here. I took the Full-Day LOTR Nomad Safaris 4WD tour in early Feb 2026 with guides Justin and Nick. Both were awesome in totally different ways-- Justin is a wealth of LOTR information, humor, trivia, and fandom. I appreciated that immensely. Every part of the ride to Paradise and back (literally and figuratively) was a blast. I walked through Ithilien, my friends. No one had to tell me where I was. It was immediately obvious where I was standing. 😁 There's really no better feeling than stepping into Middle Earth. We spent time at Isengard, saw the land around Beorn's hut, the grass of Minas Tirith (Pelennor, but only in certain shots), Caradhras and the Misty Mountains in the distance. We drove alongside Lake Wakatipu which must be one of the most beautiful roads on Earth , and stopped at a very well-loved road in Paradise where many things have been filmed. Justin told us all about it-- won't spoil it for you here, but trust me it's unmissable. We even got a little bonus, driving by a hush-hush film set. This wasn't like other tours where you just stop for like 2 minutes and take a photo and load back up. We actually spent time in places, geeked out together, etc. We had tea and biscuits, played in costumes. Justin is a great cinematographer with a cell phone. The voucher lunch in Queenstown was way above average. We hated to part ways with Justin. But then we met Nick, and he was cool too! We went to a surprise LOTR location that we had to guess, which was fun. None of us guessed! But it was really neat to see. You want to talk about the master of offroading...this guy knows what he's doing! We drove through the Dart River (yes, you read that correctly) and he taught us how to pan for gold. I got a gold flake on my first try! That was near the place where they filmed the Nazgul in the Bruinen River. So that absolutely blew my mind. The 4wD experience was so freaking cool. Like being in a Toyota commercial. 🤣 Nick taught us all about the history of Arrowton and gold mining. We saw gold nuggets! He was super cool and into the history of the area. Then he took us up Skipper's Road and HOLY HELL that was amazing. I'm so glad I wasn't driving. 🤣 I would've gone right off the cliff while sightseeing and met my fate like Gollum. And probably wouldn't have cared...because the scenery is that epic. I loved that he told us about all the landmarks, and the land itself. Bottom line: If you're an LOTR fan of any kind, or if you want to see all things beautiful in the Queenstown vicinity, this is the tour. Take it. I loved it. My favorite part? *Everything*.

Cool film locations and amazing views! - We had an amazing time getting to different film scene areas and hearing about the behind the scenes facts in those locations, the history of the area, and getting to do some fun photo shoots with the props!

Great Tour - It was awesome. The full day tour has been great for me as a great Lord of the Rings fan. There was a lot shown and explained, the tour guides were very great, with funny cutscenes. In short: a great tour and a great day (February 7, 2026)

LOTR All Day Tour - Such a great day! Mike was a wonderful tour guide and very knowledgeable. The LOTR tour was very scenic and beautiful.

Great Scenery, Great LOTR Locations & Great Guides - Had a great day out with Michael in the morning and Phoebe in the afternoon. Visited some great LOTR locations, which were brilliantly illustrated and explained by the guides. Also managed an exhilirating ride down Skippers Canyon, a wild ride up the Arrow River, and even managed to find a spec of gold! Only sorry we didn't take more videos. And of course, we did a bit of dressing up! :-)

Fun and Adventurous - Felt like I was in the presence of the lord of the rings characters playing their part and got to see and experience the most beautiful parts of Queenstown

Best safari trip I ever been to ! - The safari was an amazing trip for all ages ,the people were so nice and welcoming, totally worth it ,and I will totally go again.

Great day, great guides - Such a great day visiting sites from LOTR. All the guides were fantastic, our son even managed to pan a few flakes of gold. Definitely recommend doing this if you are a LOTR fan

Great experience - I got a private LOTR tour for my husbands 50th birthday. Finley and Justin did an INCREDIBLE job at showing us around the filming sites. They were both very knowledgeable in all things LOTR especially Justin who was a massive fan. Thank you both for a very memorable day.

Take a tour, but expect problems - Tour guide Roger did not feel it necessary to show up on time. I almost missed the tour because other (on time) tours were taking place. Roger, who introduced himself as the alleged cameraman of LOTR, seemed very arrogant from the start. He didn't take into account that I wasn't a native speaker, despite his speech, muttered something in his beard. Lunch was also an imposition. Thanks to Roger and his own sense of time, we barely had time, the restaurant was a burger shop and the 20 NZ-Dollar vouchers were just enough there for the cheapest burger, the rest went on their own. The second part of the tour with guide Nico was top.