East of Eden
- 6
- Locations
- 1
- Countries
- 2026
- Year
Overview +
In the early 1900s, Cathy Ames, a fiercely independent woman, comes between the Trask brothers Adam and Charles, setting off a family saga that runs across two generations. Raised under a domineering father, the brothers have taken opposite paths, and Cathy's stay in their house plants the seed of a rift between them. Adam chases a dream of making a new home in California's Salinas Valley. Zoe Kazan adapted John Steinbeck's novel as a seven-episode limited series, directed by Garth Davis and Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre. Florence Pugh plays Cathy, Christopher Abbott plays Adam and Mike Faist plays Charles, with Hoon Lee and Ciarán Hinds alongside them. Netflix released it on 1 October 2026, and for the week of 5 to 11 October it placed second in Netflix's global top 10 for English-language TV. The story unfolds in California, but it was filmed across the Pacific in New Zealand.
In Otago on the South Island, Ōamaru's old town and Dunedin's gardens are for walking, while Alberton and Highwic in Auckland, on the North Island, are historic houses you can go inside. Cheltenham in Devonport is a lived-in neighbourhood best seen from the street. The Trask farm in the Maniototo was a set, so go there for the mountain scenery.
Filming Locations
Oamaru Victorian Precinct, Oamaru, New Zealand
This is where the Salinas town street scenes were filmed. Ōamaru's Victorian heritage precinct holds one of the largest and best-preserved collections of old whitestone buildings in New Zealand. The production closed the precinct for a week to film, and also put the Ōamaru Steam and Rail Society railyard on screen. Creator Zoe Kazan said New Zealand still has a great deal of Victorian architecture from its gold rush era that was never torn down, which gave the production far more locations to choose from than one place in the United States would have. The precinct is easy to explore on foot.
Queens Gardens, Dunedin, New Zealand
The 1898 Boston scenes in episode two were filmed in central Dunedin. The Boston street Cathy walks along is Princes Street, and the park she looks out onto from her apartment window is Queens Gardens. The dress shop window she peers into is the front of Taste Merchants on Lower Stuart Street, dressed as a costumier and milliner, and Dunedin Railway Station makes a brief appearance. Parts of the city were closed for a day during the shoot. The gardens and streets are open for anyone to walk.
Cheltenham Road, Devonport, Auckland, New Zealand
The residential streets of Salinas around the First World War were filmed in Cheltenham, in the Auckland suburb of Devonport, where local houses supplied both interior and exterior shots. When filming took place in February 2025, houses on the streets around Cheltenham Road were repainted to suit the early 1900s. People still live here, so it is best to look from the street.
Alberton historic house, Mount Albert, Auckland, New Zealand
A historic house in Mount Albert, Auckland, cared for by the heritage agency Heritage New Zealand. Three of its properties, Alberton, Highwic and the Thames School of Mines on the Coromandel Peninsula, were used for filming. Tanya Wilkinson, who leads the agency's Auckland properties, said they were delighted and honoured that the three were chosen as backdrops, and staff said the crew dressed the rooms to look lived-in. Alberton is open to the public, so you can look around inside.
Highwic historic house, Newmarket, Auckland, New Zealand
Another Heritage New Zealand house used alongside Alberton, Highwic stands in Newmarket, Auckland. Among the scenes filmed at the two houses is the one in episode five where Lee finds a bed after leaving the Trasks. The house is a historic house museum you can tour for an entry fee, and the gardens are free for anyone to wander.
Hawkdun Range, Maniototo, Otago, New Zealand
The isolated landscape around the Trask farm in the Salinas Valley was filmed below the Hawkdun Range in the Maniototo, Central Otago. The area around Hills Creek near Oteake Conservation Park is named as the location, and its dry, rugged hills carry the farm's isolation and bleakness. The Trask family home was a set built from scratch by the production, not a real farmhouse, so think of this as a trip for the mountains and open country.
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