How Much do I Love Thee? Let Me Count the Ways…

The Guardian asks LotR cast members to explain their widely publicised admiration for NZ. Billy Boyd (Pippin): “The land feels new; it feels like what Scotland might have been like a few million years ago; it’s still forming.” Bernard Hill (Theoden): “The west coast of South Island was one of my favourite places, north of the Fjords around the Franz Josef Glacier. It’s really hard to describe why it’s special; you just get it when you go there.” Sir Ian McKellen (Gandalf): “I first thought – a year in New Zealand, great chance to visit Australia! But then almost immediately I found I was moving round the most beautiful country in the world with the most amazing variety of scenery. I fell in love in New Zealand. It’s the most advanced nation socially that I know of.”