Netflix's new seven-part adaptation of John Steinbeck's East of Eden, starring Florence Pugh and written by Elia Kazan's granddaughter Zoe Kazan, has landed — and its 19th-century Salinas Valley is not in California at all. The whole thing was shot more than 6,000 miles away in New Zealand, and fans can already visit the key locations.

The show's stand-in for the town of Salinas is Ōamaru, a small port town in the Waitaki District on the South Island. Zoe Kazan's reasoning is straightforward: New Zealand's Victorian-era gold rush left a stock of limestone buildings that never got demolished, giving the production more authentic period streetscapes in one place than they could have found in the US. The Ōamaru Historic Precinct's late-1800s landmarks — including Smiths Grain Store and The Criterion Hotel — all feature on screen.

The Waitaki tourism board has leaned into it, launching an hour-long self-guided walking tour of the filming spots. The highlight is The Criterion, which still operates as a working pub and hotel with high ceilings, parlours, a dining room and a Gentleman's Lounge complete with leather chesterfields — you can eat, drink and sleep inside a set. The route also passes The Penguin Club, a live music venue, and the volunteer-run Oamaru Steam and Rail Society's railyard, home to vintage steam engines. Local property manager Jacob Barwick says the production has already been a drawcard and expects visitor numbers to climb now the series is streaming.

Beyond town, the Trask family farm scenes were shot in the foothills of the flat-topped Hawkdun Range in Otago, centrepiece of the Oteake Conservation Park — a mountainous backcountry popular with hikers and mountain bikers. Production designer Grant Major (a veteran of The Lord of the Rings) also tapped Auckland for interiors, including the brothel sets, noting the city holds one of the world's biggest collections of wooden Victorian houses.

Why it matters for travellers: film-set tourism is about to hit this corner of Otago hard, but unlike many on-screen locations, these are working buildings in a real town you can wander freely. Ōamaru also happens to be a genuinely pleasant stop — known for its whitestone architecture and the blue penguin colony that arrives at the harbour each dusk — and it sits neatly between Dunedin and the Waitaki Valley. If the show does for Ōamaru what past blockbusters did for other South Island spots, going sooner rather than later is the smart move.