An argument is offered that New Zealand is the wrong place to film Tolkien’s works:
One of Tolkien’s great accomplishments was making Middle-earth seem vividly old. Wherever the reader looks, ruins and crumbling statues poke through the lichen. […]
To do justice to Tolkien—to capture the essence of Middle-earth—a filmmaker needs to convey that sensibility. And the problem with New Zealand is that it is decidedly young—both geologically and as a place inhabited by people. […]
The criticism of tone is valid, but on the other hand: our world is, by definition, older than Bilbo’s; Tolkien had no grasp of geology anyway; Eriador has been depopulated (why?) for a thousand years by Bilbo’s time, and Rhovanion always was relatively empty.
The only possibility that explains the persistent depopulation and makes sense is that Sauron has been spreading sterilizing diseases. (There were earlier epidemics that were more obvious.)
I neglected to link to this past post.