Netflix's new adaptation of John Steinbeck's East of Eden — seven episodes, Florence Pugh in the lead, written by Elia Kazan's granddaughter Zoe Kazan — needed a 19th-century Salinas Valley. Modern California couldn't deliver one, so the production went to New Zealand's South Island instead.
The stand-in town is Ōamaru, in the Waitaki District of Otago. Thanks to a Victorian-era gold rush, the town was left with a wealth of limestone buildings that were never demolished, and its Historic Precinct is now one of the country's best-preserved collections of 1800s architecture. Spot Smiths Grain Store and The Criterion Hotel in the series — the hotel is still trading, with high ceilings, old bars and parlours, a dining room and a leather-chesterfield Gentleman's Lounge, so you can eat, drink and sleep inside a filming location.
The Waitaki tourism board has put together an hour-long self-guided walking tour of the locations. It takes in The Criterion plus other screen backdrops: The Penguin Club, a live music venue, and the volunteer-run Oamaru Steam and Rail Society's railyard, home to vintage steam engines. Local heritage staff say the production has already boosted visitor numbers, with more expected now the series is streaming.
The farm scenes weren't shot in town at all. Production designer Grant Major filmed the Trask family's land in the foothills of the flat-topped Hawkdun Range, the centrepiece of Oteake Conservation Park — a mountainous backcountry that draws hikers and mountain bikers in its own right. Interior sets, including the story's brothels, were built in Auckland, a city Major notes has one of the world's biggest collections of wooden Victorian houses, which the crew put to use.
Zoe Kazan's version goes deeper than the 1955 film her grandfather directed, expanding Cathy's storyline alongside the Trask and Hamilton families (played by Mike Faist, Christopher Abbott and Ciarán Hinds, among others). For travellers, that's the appeal: the series is a ready-made itinerary through a corner of New Zealand most people skip between Queenstown and Christchurch, pairing a walkable heritage town with high-country scenery.
