Hey no bother.

Whether you come to visit for a few days, or stay for a while you'll enjoy it.
there is so much to do, and if you don't like a place, drive down the road a bit and there will be a totally different place within 1 hours drive.

You can drive from the "surf" to the mountains in about 1 hour in most places, and from "east coast" to "west coast" in less than a day.
[North to South takes longer].

Its similar in climate and scenery to Tasmania. I'm sure Patrick (pca) would like it here also.

I forgot to mention we have nothing poisonous/dangerous here in the country, no snakes, no box-jellyfish, scorpions or anything like that. The most dangerous/poisonous animal is the Australian Redback spider which imported itself some time ago but no-one has been bitten by one I know of.

Some folks would say the most dangerous animal in the country is humans but thats a different argument. So you can go hiking in the "woods" without worrying about meeting a bear or other large animal.
So if you have a pathological dislike of dangerous creatures but like communing with nature then there isn't a lot of choice - its either New Zealand or Ireland I guess.
[or some Pacific islands, e.g. the Cook Islands].

RE: Lord of the Rings Scenery.

I'm told that scenery to come in the Two Towers: Lord of the Rings episode 2, released this Christmas is even better than the first episode scenery, which was pretty good.

But you know what the really sad thing is about the LOTR locations:

Many of the places/locations used to film the LOTR trilogy were filmed on private land, and the land owners all signed contracts with the movie studio so that there is no public access to the sites of the film sets. [in some cases the sets are still there, in many cases not]. Scenes that were filmed on National or Regional Parks (and quite a few were) had to completely remove all scenery/constructions once the shooting ended last year so there is no sign they were ever there.

New Line [the movie studio that bankrolled LOTR] has said that after the 3rd film releases in late 2003 they will look at doing something official with the film set sites but no promises are made.

So, if you want to visit Hobbiton or anywhere else like that, you can buy a map that show the film sets locations [all throughout New Zealand], but for the most part you have to imagine the way the set looks from the closest public road and nothing else. Some places [like the town closest to Hobbiton - a place called Matamata, have put up signs like "Welcome to Hobbiton" but its a little bit misleading as the actual set is some distance away on private land.

Still if you come here in 1-2 years you may find you have better access to the LOTR sites than now.
I'm sure in the future there will be a recognised LOTR film trail - for now you have to try and guess for yourself which scenerey appeared in the films.