Hi ctk! Welcome!
Professor Tolkien's views of 'progress', i.e., industrialization, v. nature is a theme that's well developed over in Books. There is a search feature on TORC, but I'm not sure exactly what your best query might be.
As for Jackson's use of New Zealand's spectacular geography to reflect the juxtaposition of good and evil, could you be more specific? Which scene(s) struck you most particularly?
"And it is said by the Eldar that in water there lives yet the echo of the Music of the Ainur more than in any substance else that is in this Earth; and many of the Children of Ilúvatar hearken still unsated to the voices of the Sea, and yet know not for what they listen."
There is something profound about standing AT sea level.
