Wellington 1 - A Movie Tour

For the next week or so I would stay with my best friend Ciara and her flatmates Amber, Tahlia, David and Will. It was a big house with a beautiful view from the hills. They were all very welcoming and every evening we'd have dinner together and watch the Legend of Korra afterwards.
On Thursday I went to see a lunch concert of the Wellington singing students. Will had invited me and when I got there I was surprised to see that Daniel Sun was also performing! If you remember, he was the one who had written the opera "Under the Cabbage Trees" which we had performed five years ago. (If you want to have a listen to this wonderful piece of music again, you can find it on my Blog under the label "Videos".) Other than that I used the day to walk through the city and revisit the Big Sing locations I remembered for Ciara was at uni...

Even the Tuatara waited for me at the exact same spot!!!

The next day I had booked the Ultimate Wellington Movie Tour though. At 10 am the bus picked me up in town and together with two other girls we visited various Lord of the Rings locations in and around the Middle of Middle-Earth. We started at Dry Creek Quarry where Weta had construncted the sets for Helm's Deep and later also Minas Tirith. Now it was a construction site though and they had left nothing recognizable.

Next stop was Harcourt Park, alias the gardens of Isengard. The only proof that the film crew had really been there was a straight line of a slightly different type of grass where the gravel road had been on which Gandalf rode to reach Orthanc.

Hutt River was where Aragorn was washed ashore after being dragged over a cliff by a warg and where he was later found by his horse Brego. The alpaca Peppy on the neighboring farm watched us all reenact that scene.

A very important location in that region is definitely Rivendell. Follow the signs to Kaitoke Regional Park and you will find the exact spot. Once again there is nothing left of the sets other than an archway in the Elvish style, which is not the original one though.

My bible, the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit location guidebook by Ian Brodie

Our last location on the outskirts of Wellington was up at Mt. Victoria and was featured as the outer Shire. Within close proximity to the city the Hobbits were chased first by the angry farmer Maggot and then by the Nazgul. There were several scenes shot here and it was definitely fun to roll down the hill like Merry and Pippin or hide behind trees like Frodo.

Frodo and Sam

Merry and Pippin

The two of us who had booked a full-day tour were then shown the WELLINGTON sign as well as the Embassy cinema, Miramar studios and WETA Cave. Aditionally we chose to do a Weta Workshop Tour where we caught a glimpse of their behind the scenes work. It was really interesting but unfortunately no photos were allowed. As conclusion of the day I was allowed to hold Boromir's sword which is available for 10.000 NZD! The tour was very intersting, the guides friendly and informative and I would totally recommend it to every Lord of the Rings fan.