Peter Jackson was engulfed in the tail of The Lord of The Rings since he was 18 years old. It was while on a train ride through the north country, reading one of the books and occasionally glancing out the window at the Kiwi scenery that he realized that New Zealand was very similar to a Middle Earth being described in the books. It took ten years of planning and three years of filming to bring the tale to the big screen. Part of the process involved Mr. Jackson traveling throughout the two islands scouting out potential sites. He walked, drove, jet boated and looked at the geography from the air in chartered helicopters. While scouting in the Queenstown area, he happened along The Cardrona Hotel which is close to the Cardrona ski field between Queenstown and Wanaka. Once inside, Mr. Jackson felt he had just stepped into the Prancing Pony.
As Peter walked into the pub, he felt he could sense the presence of both the Ranger in the corner drawing on his pipe and the Hobbits sitting and sipping on their ales. "They come in pints?"
Although no filming was done at The Cardrona Hotel & Pub, it served as an inspiration for the setting of the Prancing Pony in the first movie. The cast also frequented the pub for a draft after a long day of filming!