Babbling Brooke’s Travel Blog

Waking up in Wellington on day 16 of our trip (almost halfway already 😳) we got ready for the day nice and early to go see where Rivendell was filmed! We grabbed some yummy breaky at Mayfair Cafe in Upper Hutt, a town about 35 minutes North of Wellington. The cafe used to be an old movie theater and had all sorts of cool memorabilia. 

At the site where they filmed the Rivendell scenes of LOTR, we walked the loop, stopping to read the placards and information that helped set the scene. It was wild to see how much the plants and trees have grown in the last 25 years! The only actual artifact left was the stone archway the fellowship passed under when leaving Rivendell on their quest. The big difference is the archway that is currently there was actually rebuilt later on and is only half the size of the one from the film set!

Back in Wellington, we decided to walk around Cuba street again. The night before it had been a ghost town, but it also had been Boxing Day here (a national holiday)! And today was a new day- as evidence by people walking around with shops and restaurants open. We got some ice cream and window shopped a bit before heading to the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa.

We went through their nature exhibit first and, besides looking at art, this was probably one of the most fun and interactive museums I’ve ever been in. They had skeletons from (extinct) giant moa – (think of an emu and quadruple the size) and all sorts of species specific to New Zealand.

The museum also had a volcano portion with earthquake education where people could go into a makeshift ‘house’ and feel it shake at a 6.5 magnitude earthquake! There also was a plexiglass elongated box filled with water where you could pull a lever to create a ‘tsunami’ and see what the wave does when it reaches land. We were having a great time until all of a sudden, the lights came on and then the fire alarm started blaring! Obviously having to exit with everyone else, we cut our losses and we headed back to the hotel to get our car- we had another activity scheduled anyways!

I do quickly want to point out that the admission for Te Papa lasts for 48 hours and if we had any more time in Wellington I would have 100% gone back! There is so much to see. I’m also picking up that is something NZ does, as this wasn’t the first time we encountered a 2 day pass with admission. It seems NZ really wants you to be able to see everything and spend time in these spaces- which I think is pretty amazing.

We cut across town to grab a quick bite and a beer before walking over to Weta Workshop for our afternoon tour.

First off- I cannot say enough incredible things about how amazing this tour was. The folks that work at Weta clearly love what they do and you can see the pride in their work down to the tiniest details.

If you’re unfamiliar with what Weta is, they are a NZ based studio of creators who design and manufacture props and VFX for movies, shows, museums, and more. They famously created all the props and did the makeup for the LOTR trilogies. They have also taken part in many other well known movies and shows such as The Hobbit, Dune, King Kong, and Avatar, just to name a few!

We were led through a multi-stage tour that showed us the process of making prosthetics, a detailed look at some of the incredible prop pieces they’ve made, like the real Sauron (unfortunately I don’t have proof, you’ll have to go tour to see for yourself)! They have an in-house blacksmith that loved swords so much growing up he self-taught himself the art and now is one of the few people alive today that is an expert sword craftsman. It really was a bunch of creatives that didn’t let the world tell them they needed to have a career to pay bills, but instead took their passions and ran with it! We even got to meet one of the artists who works on models and another artist who showed us how to make sculptures out of tinfoil, a hot glue gun, a fork and a spoon (@doctinfoil). Everyone was so encouraging during the tour, I left feeling like anything is possible. Weta is truly a ‘don’t miss’ if you ever find yourself in Wellington! 

After the tour we went into the gift shop and got a couple goodies – most notably Matt got a figurine of Gandalf riding the giant eagle! We also got a book that had all the concept art for The Lord of the Rings film- super awesome find! 

Fully nerded out, we left and went back to the hotel to park the car and get freshened up before heading to the cable car to take us up the hill for a great view of the city. We grabbed some apps and a couple glasses of wine at the top before walking around the botanical gardens. There were so many birds singing we ended up sitting on a park bench for a bit just to soak it up. 

Back at the bottom, we made our way to Cuba street again and found Yor Yak, a yummy Thai place, for dinner! 

We really maxed out our one full day in Wellington and were truly exhausted by the time we got back to the hotel. It was a sun up ‘til sundown kind of day! We hit the hay knowing tomorrow we’d leave the North Island and make our way to the South Island via a huge ferry! The weather report looked good and I was so relieved to know there wasn’t going to be high winds like the past 2 days – I did not want to get seasick!

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