Where Was Sweet Tooth Filmed? Rees Valley to Tasman Glacier
Netflix’s Sweet Tooth is set in a post-pandemic America. However, not a single frame of it was actually shot there. Instead, the Sweet Tooth filming locations in New Zealand span three dramatically different corners of the South Island: the Rees Valley near Glenorchy, the Tasman Glacier inside Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park, and the wider Central Otago region. Together, these landscapes gave the show’s production team exactly what a studio backlot never could. They offered real scale, real weather, and a genuinely untouched wilderness standing in for a collapsed civilization thousands of miles away.
All three seasons of the series were filmed entirely in New Zealand. The show’s own producers have called this decision both a creative and a practical one. This guide breaks down what was filmed where. It also covers why New Zealand doubled so convincingly for a dystopian United States, and how travelers can visit each location today.
Quick facts:
- Main NZ locations: Rees Valley (Glenorchy), Tasman Glacier (Aoraki/Mount Cook), Central Otago
- What was filmed here: Gus and Tommy’s mountain journey, Birdie’s Arctic blizzard scenes, and much of the show’s post-apocalyptic wilderness
- Seasons filmed: All three seasons, including Season 3, filmed back-to-back with Season 2
- Executive producers: Robert Downey Jr. and Susan Downey, via Team Downey
- Best time to visit: October to April for the most reliable alpine access
Rees Valley Glenorchy: Gus and Tommy’s Mountain Trek
The most recognizable Sweet Tooth landscape belongs to the Rees Valley, just outside Glenorchy in Queenstown’s backcountry. This is the sweeping mountain scenery shown after Gus joins Tommy in the show’s early episodes. Mount Earnslaw rises over the glacier-fed Rees River in nearly every shot. Fans of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit will likely find the scenery familiar. It borrows the same alpine drama those films used further along the valley.
A few details worth knowing about the Rees Valley Glenorchy filming location:
- The giant antennas seen in the scene were added entirely in post-production; nothing like that stands here in reality
- The location sits only a short drive from central Queenstown, making it one of the more accessible Sweet Tooth sites
- Nearby Glenorchy scenery has also doubled for The Chronicles of Narnia and Mission: Impossible – Fallout, so film fans often treat the area as a multi-franchise stop rather than a single-show detour
Because the valley sits within genuine backcountry, most visitors explore it guided rather than independently. A Rees River Trail tour follows the same river the show filmed alongside. You can do this on foot, by mountain bike, or on horseback. For a faster-paced option, the Glenorchy Full Day with Dart River Jetboat tour combines the drive to Glenorchy with a jet boat run through the braided river systems nearby.
Tasman Glacier: Birdie’s Arctic Blizzard
If the Rees Valley gave the show its mountain wilderness, the Tasman Glacier gave it something colder and far more extreme. Inside Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park, this stretch of ice stood in for the Arctic in two separate scenes. It appears in Season 1’s “In Captivity” and again in Season 2’s opening sequence, where Birdie treks through a blizzard.
Showrunner Jim Mickle told Netflix’s Tudum just how demanding that shoot became. According to Mickle, the crew flew helicopters onto the glacier for a single day, right before Christmas. The sheer scale of the ice made it almost impossible to judge distance or size once they were standing on it. As New Zealand’s longest glacier, Tasman Glacier is roughly the size of Florence, Italy. That scale explains why it reads as so convincingly vast on screen.
For travelers, a Tasman Glacier tour is one of the more memorable ways to see this same landscape in person:
- The Tasman Glacier Heli Hike flies in by helicopter and includes time walking across the ice itself
- The Glacier Explorers boat tour takes visitors across the glacier’s terminal lake, past icebergs calved directly from the ice face
- Our Mount Cook National Park guide covers the wider park, including nearby walking tracks and stargazing under the Aoraki Mackenzie Dark Sky Reserve
Behind the Scenes: Cast and Crew on Location
Much of what’s known about the Sweet Tooth filming locations comes directly from the cast and crew themselves, rather than official press releases. During Season 1 production, lead actor Christian Convery, who plays Gus, shared several photos from around New Zealand on social media. These offered early confirmation of where the show was filming, before Netflix had said much publicly. Co-star Nonso Anozie did the same during his time in Queenstown, posting from the resort town on the shores of Lake Wakatipu.
Production designer Nick Bassett, based in New Zealand, has described the experience as one of near-endless creative opportunity. The crew could access a wide range of contrasting terrain within relatively short distances of each other, from alpine glaciers to dry tussock basins to coastal forest. As a result, they rarely needed to compromise on a location to fit the schedule. Showrunner Jim Mickle worked remotely from Los Angeles for much of the production. He has said that New Zealand’s crew culture, with responsibilities shared more openly across departments, suited the kind of collaborative storytelling he wanted for the show.
Central Otago Filming Locations: Building the Post-Apocalyptic World
Beyond these two anchor locations, several stretches of Central Otago filled out the show’s dystopian backdrop. Production designer Nick Bassett has spoken about how much creative freedom New Zealand’s landscapes gave the team. So many contrasting terrains sat within a manageable distance of each other.
Central Otago’s dramatic, dry, and often stark scenery suited the story for a reason beyond aesthetics, too. The same emptiness that makes the region so photogenic also let the crew shoot without modern roads, buildings, or power lines breaking the illusion of a collapsed civilization. Other Central Otago filming locations have carried a similar dystopian or otherworldly tone. The Ida Valley is one example, since it stood in for 1920s Montana in The Power of the Dog.
The region’s mining history is visible too, and it’s worth combining with a Sweet Tooth stop. The Goldfields Jet ride through Kawarau Gorge covers this same gold-rush landscape at speed. Meanwhile, our Central Otago region guide rounds up the wider area’s hiking, wine, and heritage sites.
Sweet Tooth Season 3 New Zealand: What Was Filmed Recently
Unlike many shows that scatter filming across years, Sweet Tooth season 3, the series’ final season, was filmed largely back-to-back with Season 2. New Zealand’s Film Commission has confirmed the production ran both seasons concurrently. This let the crew reuse resources and keep the show’s visual style consistent from one season into the next.
Season 3 leaned even further into the Arctic setting Tasman Glacier had already established. According to the New Zealand Film Commission, an aerial unit shot hours of additional glacier photography during pre-production. The season’s snowmobile chase sequence was also filmed on location, rather than against a green screen. Filming wrapped in Auckland in 2023, ahead of the season’s June 2024 release. This closed out a production that ran entirely on New Zealand soil across all three seasons.
Comparing the Three Main Locations
| Location | Region | Role in the Show |
| Rees Valley | Near Glenorchy, Queenstown | Gus and Tommy’s mountain trek, Mount Earnslaw and Rees River backdrop |
| Tasman Glacier | Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park | Birdie’s Arctic blizzard scenes, Seasons 1 and 2 |
| Central Otago | Otago region | Wider post-apocalyptic wilderness and dystopian landscape shots |
Getting Between the Three Regions
Rees Valley, Tasman Glacier, and the wider Central Otago area sit in different parts of the South Island. It helps to know roughly how they connect before planning a route:
- Queenstown to Glenorchy (Rees Valley): around 45 minutes by road, following the shores of Lake Wakatipu
- Queenstown to Aoraki/Mount Cook Village (Tasman Glacier): roughly 3 hours by road, or a shorter scenic flight for those short on time
- Queenstown to Central Otago’s main towns (Alexandra, Cromwell, Wanaka): anywhere from 45 minutes to just over an hour, depending on the specific stop
Most travelers base themselves in Queenstown for the Rees Valley and Central Otago legs. From there, they either drive or fly north for a day or two around Aoraki/Mount Cook before returning south. Self-drive is straightforward on sealed highways for all three regions. Even so, a guided tour removes the need to navigate unfamiliar mountain roads.
Why New Zealand Worked as a Stand-In
It’s a fair question, since New Zealand and a post-pandemic United States don’t share an obvious visual identity. Executive producer Amanda Burrell has described the country as a genuine treasure trove of beauty. She added that wherever the crew put the camera, the result looked instantly cinematic. There was a practical upside too. Because New Zealand stayed relatively free of COVID-19 disruption during the height of the pandemic, filming could continue at a point when many overseas productions were shutting down entirely.
That combination, dramatic scenery paired with logistical stability, is a large part of why all three seasons stayed in New Zealand rather than splitting production elsewhere.
Planning a Visit Around the Sweet Tooth Filming Locations
These three regions sit at different points across the South Island. Seeing all of them properly benefits from a planned route rather than a single day trip. A South Island tour package can string Queenstown, Glenorchy, and the Mackenzie Country together into one itinerary. Meanwhile, our tailor-made tour packages can build a trip around film locations specifically, whether that’s Sweet Tooth, The Lord of the Rings, or any of the other productions that have used this same scenery.
If you’re chasing more of New Zealand’s screen history, our Paradise, Glenorchy Lord of the Rings guide and full New Zealand filming locations roundup cover many of the other productions shot across these same regions. You can also add any of these stops directly to your custom vacation package wishlist.
When to Visit
Conditions vary significantly between the three regions:
- Rees Valley & Glenorchy: best from October to April, when backcountry trails and river crossings are most accessible
- Tasman Glacier: accessible year-round via helicopter or boat tour, though weather can ground flights with little notice
- Central Otago: hot, dry summers and genuinely cold winters, so shoulder-season visits (spring and autumn) often bring the most comfortable conditions
Mountain and glacier weather can shift quickly. It’s worth checking conditions close to your visit date, regardless of season.
New Zealand’s Real Post-Apocalypse
Most viewers watching Sweet Tooth have no idea they’re looking at Queenstown’s backcountry, Aoraki/Mount Cook, and the Otago high country. To them, it simply reads as a ravaged version of America. That illusion is exactly what made these locations so valuable to the production. Real terrain, unpredictable weather, and genuine scale gave the show a texture no set could fully replicate.
For travelers, that same scale is the appeal. Whether you’re drawn to the Rees Valley’s mountain drama, a Tasman Glacier tour across New Zealand’s longest ice field, or the wider Central Otago filming locations that rounded out the show’s dystopian world, this trio of landscapes ranks among the country’s most striking screen backdrops.
Browse our South Island tour packages or get in touch to start planning a route built around these locations.
