OK, time to be honest...so the real reason we went to Wellington, was our pilgrimage to
Weta Cave and all things Lord of the Rings. We went directly to the suburb of Miramar upon arriving into town. The Wellington film industry, including Weta, is located right in the middle of this really cute, charming residential neighborhood.
Our guide for anything LOTR led the way, naturally...
Family pic with Bilbo's trolls
Ellie and Bert
Mimi and Tom
Ben and Bill
A precious likeness...
Julia and Gandalf
Admiring the collection
Lurtz and the ladies
Mama meets Mithrandir
Taking it all in...
Hobbit prosthetics
Cris, Ellie, and Mimi went on a LOTR movie tour and guess who came along...
Now, on to some film locations!
Dry Creek Quarry, film site for Helm's Deep and Minas Tirith
Aragorn washed ashore on this section of the Hutt River
Gandalf and Saruman (as played by: Mimi and Ellie) in the Isengard Gardens filmed at Harcourt Park
Time for a lunch break at Kaitoke Regional Park (a.k.a. Rivendell)
Kaitoke swing bridge
Rivendell was filmed in this part of Kaitoke Regional Park
This tree was in a Legolas poster that promoted the movie, but was not actually in the movie.
After the tour, the whole family met up again for a bit of tramping through Mt. Victoria, right in the heart of Wellington. It is an amazing, huge wilderness area in the center of the city. The outskirts of the Shire, the escape from the Nazgul, and the race to the ferry were all filmed on Mt. Victoria.
"Get off the road" scene location (with our own little hobbits) - the root system was manufactured and placed on site for the filming
Family pic on the road out of the Shire
Reenacting the Nazgul!
This was just the first of many LOTR sight seeing adventures we will experience this year. We are living in the shadow of Mt. Doom (but haven't seen the eye yet...) and have plans to visit Hobbiton in September. Don't worry, we'll keep you all updated!
