Laketown

Laketown is where the "Dwarves in Barrels" ended up after floating downstream (see another post). The town was built over the water of the lake. Smaug, the dragon, had chased the Dwarves out of Erebor many years before, and destroyed the town of Dale in the process. The replacement town was put farther from the mountain and over water. The 1st picture looks out over Lake Pukaki (it's real name) over where that set had been built.
The 2nd picture is where the refugee village was built. When Bilbo and the Dwarves snuck into the mountain and disturbed Smaug, the dragon attacked and burned Laketown, hence refugees.
The 3rd picture is of some of the actual debris left from the burning of the set during filming plus a couple examples of refugee huts.
The 4th picture looks along the lake from the site. At the far right is Aoraki Mount Cook, the highest mountain in New Zealand. That is where the Lonely Mountain with the kingdom of Erebor was located. It will not look familiar as the model for that mountain is elsewhere and was digitally inserted.
The last picture is from a lake side high point with the refugee village site to the right and the site where Laketown was to the left.Read more