Lord of the Rings fun in and around Wellington, New Zealand

We got to Wellington after a three-hour drive from Taupo via the stunning Tongariro National Park. We stayed in a campsite just outside the city for two nights and then in the car park of Base Backpackers in the centre for the next two.

We didn’t actually make it into the city until we checked into Base! It was getting dark by the time we arrived on the first night so we just had dinner, watched some Lord of the Rings and hit the hay. And we had the same situation the following day as we ventured into the surrounding area before exploring the city.

These were the highlights from our time in and around Wellington:

1. Putangirua Pinnacles

This is where they filmed the Dimholt Road in the Return of the King – where Aragorn goes to get his army of the dead! Very exciting if you’re nerds like us ha! It’s a beautiful area in its own right, though, with the crooked, pale grey stone pillars towering above the stream bed. I don’t know whether it was just because of the ghostly story set there in Lord of the Rings, but it felt quiet eerie! It was probably just me haha but I could see why they had picked this spot!

There are a few different walk options. You can either walk to the pinnacles along the stream bed or walk up to the lookout and look down on them. We did both. It says both walks are an hour and a half but it only took about half that for the lookout walk. It was very muddy to get to the lookout and it was a lovely view, but the pinnacles are much more impressive when you’re looking up at them. We enjoyed the stream bed walk a lot more! Although, we definitely went the wrong way and ended up wading through the river a few times! It was shallow in most places though, so it was quite funny. And at least it washed all the mud off our shoes from the lookout walk!

This nature reserve is about two hours from Wellington – it’s a lovely drive through the windy mountain roads. The way back to the city was beautifully sunny for us, it was stunning! It definitely made for a great day out. 🙂

2. Rivendell

Skip straight on past this one if you’re not a Lord of the Rings fan ha! We saw a sign for this spot on our way back from the Putangirua Pinnacles and just had to pull in. In all honesty there isn’t much there, but the woodland dell is where they filmed the Rivendell scenes in the movies. The building itself was mostly a model and they superimposed a lot of the scenery, such as the waterfalls, from Fiordland down south. But it’s still fun to have a little nosey! They’ve built a replica arch there too, which you can walk through and ask Gandalf which way it is to Mordor. Haha! They also have a character height chart with Gimli, Frodo, Gandalf, Aaragorn, Legolas and Sauron. I’m basically the same height as Gandalf! Sauron was a ‘big bloke’, though, as George put it, and towered above both of us. Lol!

It’s a pretty little area next to the river and it’s about half an hour’s drive outside of Wellington. I’m not sure it’s worth making a special trip for, but it’s fun to stop off if you’re passing!

3. Cable Car and the Botanic Gardens

If you head to Lambton Quay in the heart of Wellington, you can get on board the city’s historic cable car. This runs every ten minutes and is $4 for one way or about $7.50 for a return. We just went up as we were happy to walk back down through the Botanic Gardens.

It’s only a short ride but the little red carriages are cute and it goes up through a fun little tunnel of lights! The view from the top is lovely and the cable car museum up there is free. We enjoyed looking at the old style carriages in there and trying on the Victorian clothing props ha! There’s a downhill walk through the Botanic Gardens to get back down to the city, which is really lovely. They’re quite steep Gardens but they’ve still managed to get lots of plants and different areas in. Definitely too steep for a Choo Choo Express, though, ha!

4. Mount Victoria

After riding the cable car we decided one view of Wellington wasn’t quite enough! So we trekked across to the other side of the city and up to Mount Victoria’s lookout. It was a bit of a climb but the view (main pic) was so worth it! At the top were lots of information signs, one of which told us that Wellington is officially the windiest city in the Southern Hemisphere. I was nearly blown across to the South Island from this look out so I can definitely believe that!

The pathways winding up to the summit are where they filmed the scene where the hobbits first encounter a black rider (‘get off the road!’) in the Fellowship of the Ring. It’s just a woodland path but we (mostly me) enjoyed quoting hobbits on our way up anyway!

5. Te Papa museum

This massive museum is completely free and is really good! There have a really good Maori history section and I really enjoyed all the natural history stuff too where it explained how New Zealand was formed and why it’s so active in terms of volcanoes and earthquakes. They have a little shack you can go in which demonstrates what it’s like to be in an earthquake. Having been in an earthquake myself I didn’t find it overly realistic, but it was still pretty cool haha.