Real and Unreal Worlds

“As the Wellington premiere of The Hobbit approaches, New Zealand’s picturesque landscapes are set to take centre stage once again,” Charles Anderson begins in a story for the International Herald Tribune. “Ten years ago, the breathtaking vistas featured in Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy were at the heart of a tourism campaign that helped jump-start a multibillion-dollar international travel industry and a worldwide image of the country’s clean, green living. However, critics say the realm New Zealand’s marketers have presented is as fantastical as dragons and wizards. “There are almost two worlds in New Zealand,” said Mike Joy, a senior lecturer in environmental science at Massey University in Palmerston North. “There is the picture-postcard world, and then there is the reality.”