The Team
The Red Carpet Crew
Red Carpet Tours has been running tours of New Zealand featuring LOTR locations, with the cooperation of many individuals involved with the LOTR production.
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To make the tours worthwhile experiences in Tolkien-iana, Vic searched for a personable Tolkien expert ... and found Erica Challis, who had long been a Tolkien scholar and enthusiast. Hearing rumours about a LOTR production in New Zealand, Erica helped found the fan website http://www.theonering.net/ (aka TORN), which developed a following that produces over 2 million hits each month. She has also published a well-received book, The People's Guide to JRR Tolkien.
During filming of the trilogy Erica and her colleagues on TORN worked to build a closer relationship between their essentially fan-generated website and the film-makers. After establishing a positive relationship between TORN and LOTR-New Line, Erica was regarded as a link that carried information and feedback between the film company and the fans in a way that was very satisfactory for both sides. With Erica's assistance, Red Carpet Tours began to operate Middle Earth tours on a modest scale in 2002.
In these years, Vic has also developed cordial working relationships with landowners in helping to develop their private LOTR sites into workable businesses. He's proud of spearheading the drive to save the Hobbiton site from destruction.
Julie James is the Social Media Manager and one of our New Zealand Guides for Red Carpet Tours.
She comes to us with a background in Tourism and corporate management. Julie has travelled overseas a great deal, living in Canada, the United Kingdom and spending time with relatives in France. Most of her life however has been spent in her home country of New Zealand and a true 'Kiwi' (Hobbit) at heart. Julie has a passion for travel and people and believes in maintaining a very high level of customer service.
The passion for all things Lord of the Rings by Julie and her family make sharing Middle Earth with others a real joy! Red Carpet Tours is definitely the best Lord of the Rings Tour Company in New Zealand with a fantastic product to offer! It is our pleasure to take you 'there and back again'. Join me on Face book!
As the work of RCT has increased, it has brought in another associate ... Susi Knight, professional photographer and writer, who has been a Tolkien fan since childhood in Los Angeles, where her father's job as Project Architect on the Los Angeles Music Center surrounded her in a world of creative people and great ideas. As a designer and promoter, Susi worked from Italy setting up tours to the US Southwest, where her European clients could see the best of artwork produced by the Navajo and Pueblo people (she's an expert). In the course of that, she came across RCT, and struck up a relationship. She has also been working with a London-based events firm on the program for a major LOTR event, has designed the RCT website, and is working with a number of the supporting LOTR performers and behind-the-scenes people on future event.
From: Amanda Williams
Country: USA
Anyone with the chance to go on this tour, I would say take it! You will not meet kinder, more knowledgeable and fun-loving people than Vic and Raewyn, and you will leave New Zealand with some lifelong friends, and some stories that you'll be telling until the day you die. I cannot express enough thanks to everyone involved on my tour, and I'm here to say that I WILL be making a return trip in the future! I can't wait to go back!