COLLECT Our journey starts by safely collecting all of our guests & getting onboard our vehicle. If you are coming in by cruise ship, we will collect you directly from the port. You do not need to get on a shuttle bus or head to the city as we are accredited to collect you as you walk off the ship. If you are being collected from your hotel then please wait in reception or just outside where you can been seen by your friendly guide. Sit tight, sometimes traffic (or people) can delay our arrival. If you are being collected from the iSite then pop out to the tour bus stop just outside/beside the iSite. Keep an eye out for Ka Rawe signage on the vehicle & we'll see you soon!
What a beautiful cinema & plenty of history to go with this one too. The Embassy Theatre is located at the Eastern end of Courtenay Place in the shadow of Mount Victoria. It was thrust into the international cinematic limelight when it hosted the world premiere of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King on December 1, 2003. Nearly 120,000 people lined the red carpet along Courtenay Place to watch the procession of actors and filmmakers as they made their way into the theatre for the screening. The theatre also hosted the Australasian premieres of The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers. The theatre held a red carpet screening of Peter Jackson's King Kong in 2005 and the 2012 world premiere of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.
What about this for a view! Check out the best vantage point in our beautiful city. Breathtaking 360 degree views of the central business district, the harbour & the ocean to the south. Stunnnnning! Legend has it that Wellington harbour, originally a land-locked lake, was home to two large and very active taniwha (sea monsters). One taniwha forged a passage to the open sea creating the entrance to the harbour. The second, named Whataitai, tried a different route, became stranded and died. It is believed that Tangi-te keo (Mt Victoria) was named after the soul of Whataitai. Probably the best photo opportunity on the tour, our guide/host would be delighted to be your personal photographer for the day. What a beautiful city!
HOBBITS HIDEAWAY Not only is Mount Victoria the best vantage point in Wellington with those 360 degree views but where the first day of filming took place for the Lord of the Rings trilogy back in 1998. Some of the most iconic scenes from the trilogy were filmed here & your guide will use imagery from the trilogy to bring those scenes to life. Hideaway from the Black Riders & move swiftly to Buckleberry ferry & who knows, maybe we might just recreate those scenes........Don't forget, your guide LOVES taking photos for you. Your guide will share loads of insiders knowledge weaned from training given by Lord of the Rings experts & hours if watching behind the scenes documentaries! Get off the rooooad!
WETA CAVE Don't be fooled into thinking we're here to see some New Zealand native insects up close...... Whilst the Weta is a native new zealand cricket like insect, its also the name of a World famous Film & Special Effects company right here in little old Wellington! Arguably Weta is most famous for the incredible work of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, however their impact on the greater industry is much broader than that. Included in your cost of the tour, you'll also participate in the 90 minute behind the scenes Weta Cave experience. Our guide will check you in for that. This is also your chance to purchase some memorabilia, check out some of the items on show in the mini museum & you'll even have a photo opportunity with the Cave Trolls! At Ka Rawe, our guides make great photographers too. Once we leave the Weta Cave, we check out the Wellington sign on our travels, this is the one our friends from Hollywood copied!!
We make our way back into the city around the bay & your guide will keep you informed as we go. We make it around to Oriental Bay known for being both a popular beach and an opulent centre of affluence in the city. Its a little bit pricey around here!. You'll get to see some amazing architecture & perhaps this will be the only "man made" beach you'll ever see in your lives!!? Check out Carter Fountain too. Originally named Duppa Bay after its original sole resident George Duppa, it was renamed to Oriental Bay after one of the first to bring settlers here to Wellington. Spectacular!
DROP OFF Wow! Hopefully you'll agree that we've packed loads of Wellington goodness into your time spent with us today. However as the old saying goes, all good things must come to an end. We offer a few different locations for you to get dropped off & don't forget that Wellington is a very small, compact city that is easy to get around & you're never too far from where you want to be. Our recommendation is that we drop you to Te Papa. Not only is Te Papa New Zealand's national museum but it is also centrally located for wherever your final destination may be. What a day out!
Was at the meeting place some 5 minutes early only to be told the driver had already left, so not impressed, thankfully Nathan was on hand to call him back. Enjoyed the Weta Tour and indeed seeing some film locations, would recommend.
This tour is 10/10 if you are a LOTR fan - a definite must! Nathan is the best guide, and is so knowledgeable about the City in general and also about the LOTR and it's filming locations. You get to visit some of the most fun places and recreate your own scenes/pictures. Some tours rush you from place to place, but we felt we had loads of time at each spot, Nathan is super chill. The WETA workshop, which is included, is brilliant too. I can't rate this tour highly enough!
Our driver Sam met us at the port and we enjoyed the scenic ride to the Weta Workshop where we had a little time to browse before our 90 minute tour. Hazel was our enthusiastic and informative guide and we enjoyed the engaging and informative Weta tour. We headed to Mount Victoria where we went for short walks to various Lord of the Rings filming locations. We admired the lovely harbour views too. Our driver kindly dropped us off in Wellington centre where we explored a little before walking along the waterfront back to the port. A lovely day.
Very informative and fun, great experience overall. Guide very knowledgeable with a lot of insides and flexibility. Highly recommend.
This tour touched all the highlights that we wanted to see in the limited time we had available. Nathan was punctual, energetic, friendly, and always attentive to our needs and interests. It was a small group and Nathan seemed like he knew us well in just a few minutes. I would highly suggest this tour and Ka Rawe Tours if you have a limited time in Wellington and a fan of LOTR.
Easy booking a couple of days before arriving. Could nominate different pick up and drop off locations which made it easy for us as we were coming off a cruise ship. Mini bus was waiting for us just past the cruise line shore tour buses, with a sign displaying our names so took the pain out of trying to organise travelling to these sites on our own. Our guide was great, he explained the locations we drive through to get to the Weta workshop and also on our return. The Weta workshop tour has restrictions for photography due to licensing etc but our workshop guide explained why and when we could film, this was good and avoided any ambiguity. The quality of workmanship is evident and a great success story. The Weta part of the tour is about an hour and a half of standing and walking so if there are mobility issues there are ramps and wooden log seating in the different rooms. We really liked seeing the costumes, how theyβre made, and hubby enjoyed trying on the various helmets. After Weta, our tour guide picked us up and took us to Mt Victoria to show us where particular scenes were shot for the Lord of the Rings, this was beautiful natural scenery despite the earlier heavy rains. The smell of pine and background bush while hearing the stories of filming is a great experience. We had the opportunity for photos in the different settings and were very happy we wore runners with good grip as the trail was a bit slippery due to the earlier rains. Guide offered range of drop off options including in town and recommended other interesting activities and sights tailored to the different needs of tour participants. Our tour group had 10 in total, x2 couples and x1 young family with 4 children, and our guide was great in navigating the different needs in the group, thanks Nathan. Highly recommend this tour, excellent value for money and a must-do add to your Wellington list of activities.
Nathan is fantastic, we were picked up in a Nice car, tour with just the 2 of us. Got the view from the top, & visited a LOTR film site! WETA works was fantastic; canβt recommend enough!
Our small group tour ended up private. Sam was great, took us to some beautiful areas. Wellington is a lovely city
We booked this as a surprise for my son-in-law who is a real LOTR fan and we are SO glad we did. What an incredible experience this was. Our Guide (Nathan) went out of his way to make sure we were fully immersed in everything LOTR including unique photo opportunities off the beaten track where we could recreate some really amazing moments from the films. Nothing was too much trouble and Nathan really went the extra mile and even had a bound album of special interest photos which added another dimension as we made our way around the various sites he took us to. On top of this we learnt so much about Wellington itself and even visited some superb vantage sites where the views were just incredible. We learned about where filming and editing took place for the movies and were able to see the many sites that Peter Jackson has acquired in order to produce his fabulous movies. This Tour exceeded all our expectations and we would highly recommend to anyone! The visit through Weta Workshop was the icing on the cake.
We had our own personal tour guide who was very personable and a luxury car for comfort. Our guide was very accommodating.
Most important Nathan was our guide, truly a knowledgeable, friendly and patient guide. He had a good sense of humor, cared that you enjoy your experience, the tour itself was cool, loved the quaint studio, special effects, videos, demos, hands on. Mt. Victoria special must see view and foliage
We had a shuttle service with tour guide. Very informative and we enjoyed each stops such as the exhibition of costumes, swords and special make ups for lord of the rings, visited filmed location of forest, and amazing hill top view of the city.
Fabulous trip, our guide Nathan knew every bit of information about the LotR filming, and also covered everything we wanted to know about Wellington. Our trip included several places with fabulous views or notable locations. Much more than we expected. Covered so much in one morning. Impressive tour, highly recommended.
Joined the LOTR tour today and learned a lot new about the trilogy, filming locations, actors, Peter Jackson and the whole LOTR scene! Tour guide Nathan was such a friendly and funny guy and had so much backround knowledge and stories! Visiting original filming locations in and around Wellington inclusive Weta studios was the best way to spend the day!
If your a LOTR Nerd like me this would be a Tour of a life time, not only do you visit the filming locations but your guide will provide you an insight to amazing things you have never known before. There are no words to express how amazing Nathan Is he goes above and beyond and gave us an experience we will never forget, will be recommending his awesome tour to all my friends world wide. Thanks for the souvenir Nathan. Kia Ora Bro!
Absolutely loved the whole tour. Nathan was a fantastic tour guide. Extremely knowledgeable and very comfortable to be with. Thank you for making our trip.
Wow! What an awesome day out on the Lord of the Rings Tour. Loads of great insights & we wont spoil the surprise at the end π²
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