Lord of the Rings Filming Locations

Scenes from Fellowship of the Ring were filed on Mt. Victoria. This is the only sign.

I am having a lot of fun reliving the Lord of the Rings craze from 13 years ago. I don't know why I didn't come to Middle Earth sooner, but I know I want to come back here soon. Now that I have visited many of the locations on several express tours, I will be able to come straight here next time and only spend time at these locations. During Wellington Rover's Lord of the Rings tour, the guide took us to the top of Mt. Victoria in Wellington. Many scenes from Fellowship of the Rings were filmed here but the only indication is the little sign shown above. The guide showed us photographs of the exact spots and the scenes. It was a little embarrassing for me to admit that I have only seen Fellowship of the Rings once, but I remember those scenes vividly. That's how powerful that movie was.

on the way to Rivendell

The weather forecast for Wellington was rain almost everyday while I was there. Little did I know the rain was what we call sprinkle in the Bay Area. It was hardly anything. If I had known better, I would have booked an all day Lord of the Rings tour with Wellington Rover instead of a half day tour. I took a train and then a bus in the morning trying to get to Rivendell. The bus only goes as far as this sign shown above. I wasn't sure exactly how far 6km was. I was hiking uphills on State Highway 2 next to the cars trying to get to Rivendell. Eventually I found a fence and climbed over it into Kaitoke Regional Park trail so I didn't have to hike right next to the cars. Rivendell was all the way on the other end.  I will have to save it for my next Middle Earth trip.

down the hill from Edoras, capital of Rohan

On my first day in Wellington, I found a flyer for Hassle-free Tours' Lord of the Rings tour in Christchurch. I immediately made a reservation online to ensure a spot for the all day tour. We actually climbed all the way to the top of Mt. Sunday (the mountain shown in photo below), where Edora was filmed. A castle was built for the filming, and it was taken down after the filming was over. As I climbed up the hill with ease, I knew all the hiking I had been doing had paid off. A month prior to my trip, I hiked everywhere with a weighted down backpack so I could train myself for endurance. My purple UGG Adirondack Snow Boots have proven to be worthy. They are both skid resistant and waterproof. I was able to climb up and down the muddy hill  with confidence and then walk across the shallow creek to clean the boots without getting my feet wet. It felt amazing to be on top of Mt. Sunday.

Edoras was filmed on top of this mountain, Mt. Sunday