Movie Locations Full-Day Tour with Weta Workshop and Lunch Wellington

Mount Victoria and the forest of the Outer Shire

The day begins with a stop near the Embassy Theatre on Courtenay Place, the grand cinema that hosted the world premiere of The Return of the King in 2003, before the tour climbs to the Mount Victoria lookout. From the summit you look over the city, the harbour and the Miramar Peninsula, where much of the filmmaking took place.

Just below the lookout, the pine forest on the slopes of Mount Victoria became the Outer Shire. This is where the Hobbits hid beneath tree roots from a Black Rider after being told to get off the road, and where they stumbled down a bank to find mushrooms. Your guide shows you the exact spots, and you can recreate the scenes for photos on this easy forest walk.

Weta Workshop in Miramar

Next comes the highlight for many guests: a behind-the-scenes tour at Weta Workshop, the design and effects studio in Miramar that created the armour, weapons, creatures and miniatures for the trilogy. The studio takes its name from the wētā, a large native New Zealand insect, and has since worked on many international films.

In a specially designed tour space, a Weta artist explains how props, costumes and weapons were made, from sketches and sculptures to finished pieces, and you see examples up close. There is time to take photos with iconic characters from Middle-earth and to browse the shop for souvenirs. A Weta Workshop tour is one of the most popular things to do in Wellington for film fans.

The River Anduin and a hobbit-style lunch

After the workshop the tour heads north into the Hutt Valley, where the Hutt River played the River Anduin, the great river along which the Fellowship paddled towards the Falls of Rauros after leaving Lothlórien. Your guide matches the scenery to the scenes and shares stories of how the river sequences were filmed.

Lunch is served at a café with a hobbit theme, where you can feast on hearty traditional fare to refresh your energy for the afternoon. All dietary requirements can be catered for, so let us know when you book. Lunch is also a relaxed moment to ask your guide questions about filmmaking in New Zealand. The Hutt Valley itself is a green, peaceful corridor of riverside parks and small towns, a pleasant contrast to the busy city centre.

Kaitoke Regional Park, the setting for Rivendell

After lunch you drive to Kaitoke Regional Park, a stunning area of temperate rainforest, rivers and swimming holes about an hour north of Wellington. This is where Rivendell, the elven refuge, was filmed, and your guide explains how the forest was transformed into the elven halls, the bedroom of the young Hobbit and other sets.

Highlights include the Rivendell gate tower, a replica structure where you can recreate the moment the newly formed Fellowship sets out, a swing bridge over the river and a giant native rimu tree about 800 years old. Your guide also introduces the plants and birds of the New Zealand forest. Kaitoke is worth visiting for its nature alone. Allow time to simply stand by the river and listen to the native birds in the canopy.

The Gardens of Isengard and Dry Creek Quarry

The last stop is Harcourt Park in Upper Hutt, used for the Gardens of Isengard, where the wizards walked through peaceful gardens before they were destroyed and where the felling of the forest of Fangorn began. Its tall trees and open lawns make it easy to picture the scenes as your guide describes how they were filmed.

On the way back to the city the tour passes Dry Creek Quarry, which was used for the sets of Helm's Deep and Minas Tirith. It is now a working quarry, so there is no access, but your guide shares photos and stories as you see it from the road. You are returned to your pickup point about eight hours after starting.