Lake Pukaki is a shimmering blue jewel set into a grand alpine playground – an iconic New Zealand landscape of high mountain peaks, glacier fed alpine lakes and golden tussocks stretched beneath an endless sky.

At the head of Lake Pukaki, New Zealand’s highest peak Aoraki Mt Cook dominates the turquoise ribbon of lake that fills an elongated ancient glacier-carved valley.

Sir Peter Jackson chose this part of the Southern Alps – the main divide stretching north-south the length of New Zealand’s South Island – as the setting for ‘Lake-town’ in The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.

A pure distinctive light, the amazing turquoise hues of the lake and the sharp alpine landforms were all part of the attraction for the film-maker who has used this region three times to backdrop major location scenes in his The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit Trilogies.