I know that some of your folks who are LOTR fans might be interested in this item

Seems for $50 (about $USD25) you too can see Hobitton The film set (or whats left of it now).

I particularly liked this comment:

In reply to:

---

The backer of Lord of the Rings, New Line Cinema, was initially reluctant to have Middle Earth linked with New Zealand in case it destroyed the films' mystery.

But after visiting New Zealand, New Line staff realised it was "a magical place" and the association would enhance the movie.

---

Anyone who owns the latest 4 DVD set of LOTR will know that on the 3rd or 4th DVD there is a "major locations" mini-documentary (NZ as Middle Earth) that covers most of these locations. So NewLine Cinema is obviously priming the marketing pump for after the end of next year when LOTR: TTPE (The Theme Park ExperienceTM) opens its doors.

As an related aside there is a recently launched book available written by a LOTR fan, who drove the length and breadth of the country finding and photographing every outdoor location used in the first LOTR movie - It took him 3 weeks to do so.
As he marked each location with a GPS, there will proably be a list of those locations on the web somewhere by now.

He made a comment when interviewed at the book launch that in all the LOTR set locations he visited the only evidence that LOTR had ever been filmed there was a small 2 inch sliver of expanded polystyrene packaging at one site.
So obviously the clean up crews did a good job.

Of course, with the next film about to release, we will no doubt see a whole bunch more new scenery and another book of locations for that film etc.

Then the official "LOTR" 3 film location guide trilogy....