Cyberlife

The making of Middle-Earth

Virtual tour of New Zealand brings fantasy to life

Review by Matt Leppard

Is there any more mileage in The Lord of the Rings? You bet your life there is, especially since The Return of the King almost out-Oscared Titanic (shame it didn�t, but there�s no accounting for taste). And the people most likely to milk that mileage are the New Zealand tourist authorities � as well as shadowy figures in certain plazas offering illegal pre-release DVDs, of course.

The site at travel.discovery.com/ destinations/newzealand/special.html is the latest offering from the Travel Channel, the people who bring to UBC subscribers daily doses of croc wrestling and mummy mysteries on TV shows like The Discovery Channel and Animal Planet. Around 50 percent of the website is about New Zealand as a travel destination, which isn�t such a bad thing because you can see all the sights without actually spending money on tickets and other headaches. The other 50 percent is what we�re interested in as it�s an interactive journey through the parts of New Zealand that make up Middle-Earth.

Slowly does it

But let�s put the brakes on a minute. The biggest problem with websites that deal in interactive maps, audio commentaries by the movie stars (Elijah Wood, Sean Astin and Sir Ian McKellan, for example) and other audio-visual media is that unless you�ve got a speedy Internet connection, you might be left drumming your fingers on your desk in impatience due to slow download times. So saying that, my normal home Internet connection was fine, but if you�re checking the site out from a café or school, you might have problems.

All that aside, the site really is a great piece of web work. While the main section has plenty to offer, the real treats lie in the map section. The movie character Eomar, played by native New Zealander Karl Urban, introduces the map and gives a short account of why the country was chosen as the natural backdrop for the movies. From here, you can click through to a variety of multimedia offerings based on the area in which they were filmed, from short stories and background commentaries from the stars, to behind-the-scenes movies and revealing descriptions of why the locations were chosen.

Of course, being sponsored by a tourism authority means that the aim of the site � however deeply it�s hidden � is to make you want to visit New Zealand, which it does. However, there�s so much more here and it�s so well done that to any fan of the movies or to film-making, it�s unmissable. And there�s no New Zealand version of Student Weekly as of yet�

Clickthroughs

If you like this site, you might like to check out these cool links as well.

Lonely Planet

(www.lonelyplanet.com/destinations/australasia/new_zealand)

Information on events, attractions, activities, and transportation from the usually reliable Lonely Planet.

Virtual New Zealand: Lord of the Rings

(www.vnz.co.nz/media/lotr.shtml)

Kind of a mini version of the site reviewed above. Ideal for those with slow Internet connections.

Vocabulary

mileage (n): in this use, the amount of advantage or use that you can get from a particular event or situation
milk (v): in this use, to obtain as much money, advantage, etc. for yourself as you can from a particular situation, especially in a dishonest way
sights (n): in this case, the interesting places, especially in a town or city, that are often visited by tourists
commentary (n): a spoken description of an event that is given while it is happening
drum (v): to make a sound by hitting a surface again and again
backdrop (n): the scenery surrounding an event

Idioms

you bet your life: to state something that is
obviously true put the brakes on: to slow down