Did you hear that Mr.Frodo? We're going to see the Elves...

On the morning of November 1st, we realized we made the right choice camping overnight where we did because, after studying our Lord of the Rings location guidebook, we noticed that quite a few locations were right in the area.


 First off we drove to Kaitoke Regional Park, which was the location of both Rivendell and the Fords of Isen. This site was unique because it actually had large interpretive Lord of the Rings signs and site maps which led us through the area and explained where the sets had been and where filming took place in the forest (as everything had been torn down after filming it would have been impossible to tell where anything actually was, especially after 10 years of growth!)

Not quite as tall as an elf, tall enough to be a wizard!

Our next stop was an inaccessible River Anduin location. The water was too high and the trail too overgrown that we would not have found it so we didn't explore too long.

We carried on to the Gardens of Isengard, and en-route we saw a familiar site. Turns out we were had camped right beside Harcourt Park, which was where the Gardens were filmed. We drove into the park, pulled up the ipad for actual scenes from the movie, then headed out onto the well kept lawns to get some pictures. Some of the grandeur of the scene is lost though when you don't have a heavy cloak, a pointy hat and a long beard.

With that over with, we made our way through Upper Hutt. En-route to our next location we passed the road towards the Helms Deep and Minas Tirith Quarry site. We figured the quarry operators in their excavators and dump trucks would not appreciate two Canadians in Hobbit colours wandering around an active dig site with a camera and a guidebook.

Upon arrival to Wellington we drove through "Wellywood" to the Weta Cave, which is the front shop of the Weta Workshop (the company used for special effects/props/costumes/etc in the films). To celebrate their 20th anniversary they were actually offering behind-the-scenes guided tours of the actual workshop, which is usually completely closed off to the public as they are usually working on items for upcoming, undisclosed movies.

So we enthusiastically bought the tour tickets. It was just us and another couple on our tour and we learnt some of the movie magic behind the props of not only the Lord of the Rings but other movies they worked on as well such as Narnia, Avatar, King Kong and the Rise of the Planet of the Apes. We learnt that Viggo (aka Aragorn) is a friggin tank and opted to wear real authentic (and HEAVY) chainmail throughout filming rather than the lightweight fake mail they manufactured. He also always used his steel sword, even for high action scenes where other actors would typically use lighter aluminium or plastic replicas. We also saw some of the Weta team actually working on items for a new fantasy film that is being produced. They wouldn't tell us what it was as it is still a secret, but it sounds like our type of movie as they were designing very over-the-top fantastic armour and dragon themed iron gates. After the tour we looked longingly at all the fantastic souvenirs in the Weta Cave, most of which were too expensive or too delicate to even consider buying.

After that we travelled to the nearby Mt Victoria, which was the location for the outer reaches of the Shire during the Hobbit's flight from the Nazgul.

It was here that we encountered our second interpretive LOTR sign of the day, a small, bland
white sign with black letters that said "Lord of the Rings Filming Location" and an arrow pointing off down a trail into a forest. Compared to the Rivendell site this was hardly helpful at all. On the other hand, compared to the rest of New Zealand, the very fact that there was a sign at all was a pleasant surprise.

The forest was very unique and had a nearly ominous feel to it as though it was very lush, it was composed of large strange trees with jagged trunks and dead-looking branches. It definitely did feel like we were right in the scene.

After walking down the road a short way,
we finally, as Frodo warned, 'got off the road!' ...over, and over, and over, until we got some pictures that are as close as in the film as possible allowing for ten years of plant growth. Janelle even starred in her own version of the scene, which she plans on sending to Peter Jackson to convince him that she would have made a better Frodo Baggins than Elijah.

"Get off the Road!"