This was the first of 3 LOTR tours I went on in my NZ holiday. At NZD299/person, it was really quite a lot for me to pay for a 7-hour tour around the Queenstown area, but because I am a big fan, I booked it anyway and was very looking forward to it.
I enjoyed certain parts of the tour, in particular, the filming locations themselves. We were first taken to Kawarau River for the filming location of the Argonath which was quite spectacular. Then we went to Arrowtown for some of Isildur's scenes. However, because we were already in the Arrowtown area, I had expected to be taken to the filming location of the Ford of Bruinen where Arwen crosses the river to save Frodo but the tour did not include this which was quite disappointing.
We were taken to a parking area overlooking a lake and the guide pointed to us a mountain in the distance where filming had taken place (but we did not actually go to this mountain). Here, the guide took out some replica LOTR props like swords and cloaks for us to play with. The selection was quite good compared to the other LOTR tours I went on, but too much time was spent here. Being a big fan and already owning one of the replica swords myself, I was not as excited as some of the other people in the group.
Lunch was at the Remarkables Park town. From the restaurant, we had a beautiful view of the Remarkables and Deer Park Heights where some scenes in the second movie was filmed, but again, we did not actually go to Deer Park Heights. During lunch, the guide let us look at the actual screenplays and other production materials, which the other LOTR tours I went on did not have.
Then it was on to the last location, Twelve Mile Delta, for the Oliphaunts scene and other scenes involving Frodo and Sam with Faramir. I enjoyed this location as well even though it was drizzling. The guide also showed us the flower that inspired the Simbelmyne and the trees which inspired the Lothlorien foliage.
Many reviewers have said that this tour has a lot of 'insider information', but in fact, half of the 'insider information' told to us during the tour was nothing new to me at all after I'd watched and read so many interviews of the cast and crew many years ago. Hence, I was not that impressed with this aspect of the tour. Of course there were a couple of information that was new to me but most of them were not because I'd already read about them previously.
The tour is good if you're not too big a fan and/or want to pay someone to take you around while you sit back and relax while seeing some locations. If you're a big fan, then much of the 'insider information' would be nothing new to you anyway and if you don't mind driving and figuring out the routes yourself, it would be cheaper to get Ian Brodie's guidebook and drive to the locations on your own. This way, you would definitely be able to cover more locations and at your own time.
In my opinion, the 'insider information' and playing with the props is not worth the high cost of the tour based on the reasons already mentioned above. It would be more worthwhile if the tour gave us access to at least one location that was private or where we couldn't have gotten to it ourselves. Having said that, I did enjoy being able to not worry about driving and figuring out the routes myself. After so much driving around NZ, it was nice to have someone drive me for a change while I enjoy the scenery of Queenstown.