New Xenaland
	Xena and Hercules Locations Central Plateau

For the plains and mountains of Inner Mongolia in The Debts, the Sin Trades, and Amazon High, RenPics went to the high volcanic plateau in the centre of North Island. Basically the whole central mass of North Island (with a few local wrinkles) can be thought of as sloping down from Mount Ruapehu to the sea. Much of it is of volcanic origin, deposited in ash showers from Ruapehu and its neighbours or from the enormous eruption that created Lake Taupo millennia ago.

The eastern side of 'the mountain' is in rain-shadow and, lower down, is covered in dry tussock grasses. A few miles further to the north-east are the thickly bush-clad hills of the northern end of the Kaimanawa Ranges. To the north and south of these, is more 'high country' covered with tussock.

RenPics used each of these three areas, as a major location for an episode.

Ruapehu, the most accessible location, has its own page.

Ngamatea and The Debt

We originally guessed that the battle in The Debt was 'somewhere in the Kaimanawas' before the fortuitous discovery of the river crossing scene near Ruapehu totally misled us. We subsequently spent much time futilely thrashing across the countryside around Ruapehu finding many places that were almost, but not entirely, unlike the battle scene. Should have stuck with our original guess. It was Rob and Lucy who put us on the right track - well, actually, said specifically where it was when they mentioned 'Ngamatea' in the DVD commentary.

The area between the Kaimanawa, Kaweka and northern Ruahine ranges is an almost empty stretch of 'high country', tussock plains interspersed with gorges, and the watershed for many rivers. It is traversed by the Taihape-Napier Road (also known as 'Gentle Annie' after a steep hill on the route) which is a long, remote road, though now all tarsealed. (In 1972, when I first crossed it at night in a car rally, it was 70 miles of gravel road amidst vast black emptiness, and it made a lasting impression on me). Ngamatea is a big high country 'sheep station', one of several such off this road (it even has its own website), and all (of course) private property, so inaccessible for sightseeing.

The green circle shows the approximate filming location, so far as we can tell
(an alternative possibility is the basin at the head of the Oturua Stream, 3 miles further north-north-west)
Green dots on the road show the where the long views below were taken from
Click map for large 1:50,000 map (warning 4MB download)

	The battle scene in The Debt

Seen from the western viewpoint (no 1 on the map). The high ground in the foreground was in cloud shadow, hence black.
The highest point in the background is Tawake Tohunga

Seen from the eastern viewpoint (no 2 on the map), above the Taruarau gorge.
The battle scene was, I think, 4 miles from the camera and 8 miles from Tawake Tohunga in the distance.

Kaingaroa Plains and Amazon High

The green circle is our best guess at the approximate filming location
(click for enlargement)

Attack of the enemy tribe	The cavalry to the rescue	Samsara rides off into the sunset