There is a Netflix crew in town until October. Here is where everyone else pointed their cameras first, and how to get to each spot.
Cameras started rolling here on 13 July and are scheduled to keep rolling until early October. If you are visiting this winter, you are sharing the place with a film crew — and with about forty years of them.
The production in town is Queenstown, an eight-part Netflix drama shot under the working title Black Diamond. It was created by Chloe Stearns, is led by director Glendyn Ivin with Roseanne Liang also directing, and stars Rufus Sewell and Frances O'Connor. The premise is a wealthy family coming apart against the ski scene, which is either a documentary or a drama depending on who you ask. The Otago Daily Times puts the shoot at around 450 cast and crew, roughly 120 of them local.
It is the first Netflix series to be both set and shot in New Zealand. It is nowhere near the first production to point a camera at the Wakatipu. Here is where the others went, and how to get to each one.
Glenorchy and Paradise
The 45-minute drive up the western shore is the busiest stretch of screen real estate in the district. The country around Glenorchy stood in for Isengard and, at Paradise, for Lothlórien in The Lord of the Rings. Twelve Mile Delta was the Ithilien camp; Closeburn was Amon Hen, where Merry and Pippin are taken by orcs.
Jane Campion then turned the same township into Laketop for Top of the Lake, which is a useful demonstration of how much the light does the work here. More recently the Rees Valley, past Glenorchy, held the medical camp and the Kashmiri village in Mission: Impossible – Fallout, with the helicopter chase flown over the ranges between here and Milford.
The road is sealed as far as Glenorchy and gravel beyond it. Allow longer than the map says, because you will stop at Bennett's Bluff whether you planned to or not.
Deer Park Heights
The hill above Frankton was Middle-earth in The Lord of the Rings and the Canadian Rockies in X-Men Origins: Wolverine — Logan's cabin was built up there. It is a private farm rather than a public reserve. You drive your own vehicle in, entry is charged per car rather than per head, and you book online ahead because daily numbers are capped. Bring coins if you want to feed the animals.
Skippers Canyon
Arwen's stand against the Black Riders at the Ford of Bruinen was filmed in Skippers, in the gorge behind Coronet Peak. Getting there is the part people underestimate. Skippers Road is narrow, unsealed and cut into a cliff, and most rental agreements specifically exclude it — read yours before you commit. If it does, go with a 4WD operator instead. The road is worth doing once and best done by someone who drives it daily.
The Remarkables and Coronet Peak
The Remarkables played the slopes of Dimrill Dale below Moria. Both mountains are now doing service as the setting for the Netflix series, which is presumably where the working title came from: the M1 at Coronet Peak links into the black diamond runs, and there are plenty more across the valley.
If you want the view without the lift pass, the Coronet Peak road gets you high enough for the shot from the car park.
The lake and the river
Lake Wakatipu appears in the Lothlórien sequences, and the Kawarau River is the Anduin. You can see the Kawarau for nothing from the deck at the Kawarau Bridge, which is also where the bungy started in 1988.
Gibbston and the vineyards
Under the Vines was shot around the wineries of Central Otago, so unlike most screen tourism, this one comes with lunch. Winter is the quiet season in the vineyards and several cellar doors run shorter hours, so ring ahead.
The rest of the list
Three seasons of the crime drama One Lane Bridge were written, set and filmed in the Queenstown Lakes District. Netflix's Sweet Tooth and The Letter for the King both used the region. Jane Campion came back for The Power of the Dog and used Queenstown Hill as the backdrop for a picnic. A Remarkable Place to Die is set here too. Further back, there is The Chronicles of Narnia, A Wrinkle in Time, Pete's Dragon, and the Bollywood hit I Hate Luv Storys.
Our Lord of the Rings page has the full set of Tolkien locations if that is the trilogy you came for.
If you run into the shoot
Closures and diversions during a film shoot are usually posted on the day and cleared within hours. Crews here are used to working around visitors and generally will not mind you walking past. They will mind you standing in the shot. Queenstown has been doing this long enough that the etiquette is straightforward: keep moving, and let the man from The Diplomat order his coffee in peace.
No release date has been announced. Going on the schedule, it will be a while.
Production details from Netflix and the Otago Daily Times, correct as at August 2026.
