John Steinbeck’s most ambitious novel, which traces the lives of multigenerational families in rural California, has been adapted into a seven-part Netflix series.
Before the Netflix series dropped on 1 October, East of Eden’s most famous adaptation to date was the 1955 film by director Elia Kazan. Now, over seven decades later, his writer-producer granddaughter, Zoe Kazan, is creating another version as a mini-series starring Florence Pugh.
While following in her grandfather’s footsteps, Zoe Kazan is taking a different approach to East of Eden.
“The movie isn’t a super faithful adaptation of the small part of the book that it is adapting,” Kazan told Netflix’s Tudum. “What I felt was the whole epic story is an opportunity to explore, to fall in love with all these characters.”
The 2026 adaptation of East of Eden takes a deeper dive into Cathy’s story, and how it weaves with the Trask and Hamilton families, whose members are played by actors including Mike Faist, Christopher Abbott and Ciarán Hinds, as they settle in California’s Salinas Valley.
Yet the Salinas Valley that was described comprehensively in Steinbeck’s novel does not appear the same in the 21st Century, so the production team looked to New Zealand to bring the story to life.
We have run down the breathtaking New Zealand locations used as the backdrop to this retelling of East of Eden.
Where is East of Eden (2026) filmed?
The Netflix series was filmed in New Zealand, more than 6,000 miles away from California where the book is set.
“Not to get too nerdy about the history of New Zealand, but there was a big influx of money because of a gold rush in the Victorian era in New Zealand,” Ms Kazan says. “There’s a tremendous amount of Victorian architecture that never got torn down, and so there were many more locations available to us than there would’ve been easily in one place in the States.”
New Zealand’s natural, unspoiled landscape also appealed to the series producers, serving as an ideal pastoral stand-in for the Salinas Valley, as it was known between the American Civil War and the end of the First World War.
Setting the scene for the town of Salinas, the production used Ōamaru, a small town in the Waitaki District of the Otago region, a central part of New Zealand’s South Island.
The Ōamaru Historic Precinct has retained buildings from the late 1800s made of limestone, such as Smiths Grain Store and The Criterion Hotel, which can be seen in East of Eden.
The Waitaki tourism board has created an hour-long self-guided walking tour of Ōamaru that takes visitors around part of the town used in East of Eden.
Walkers can step inside The Criterion Hotel, which appears in the film and remains a working pub and hotel today. The hotel’s interior has remained true to its 19th-century heritage, with high ceilings, bars, parlours, a dining room and a Gentleman's Lounge with leather chesterfields. Visitors can eat, drink and stay at the hotel.
The walk also takes visitors to other historic spots in the town that can be spotted staging the background of the dramatic story, such as the live music venue The Penguin Club and the volunteer-run Oamaru Steam and Rail Society railyard and station, which houses vintage steam engines.
Oamaru Whitestone Civic Trust property manager Jacob Barwick said filming brought excitement to the precinct, and has developed the map and walking tour to help people step into the world seen on screen.
“The production has already been a real drawcard, and we expect even more visitors once the series begins streaming,” he said.
“Visitors will be able to walk in the footsteps of the cast, explore the locations for themselves and experience the atmosphere that made Ōamaru such a compelling backdrop.”
Grant Major, the production designer for the series, told Condé Nast Traveller that scenes set on the Trask family farm were shot in the foothills of the Hawkdun Range in Otago.
The flat-topped Hawkdun Range is the centrepiece of the Oteake Conservation Park, a mountainous backcountry popular with hikers and mountainbikers.
Much of the interior sets, such as parts of the brothels that play a central role in the story, were built in Auckland.
Mr Major also said the city has got one of the biggest collections of wooden Victorian houses in the world, which came in handy while filming.
Read more: Where is Sense and Sensibility filmed? The beautiful locations from the new adaptation
Read MoreDisney bucks the theme park downturn with slew of discounts and deals
