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.
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 insider knowledge weaned from training given by Lord of the Rings experts & hours of 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! Beautiful
HUTT VALLEY & QUARRY We take a short journey out to the Hutt Valley region, where more movie magic was made. Whilst it looks a little different these days, the Dry Creek Quarry housed some of the most impressive sets from the movie. Believe it or not, this is where the epic Battle of Helms Deep was shot. Our guide helps bring these scenes to life with historic pictures & images from the movie. They'll also share some of the lesser known facts about the movie that relate to this particular site. For example, did you know that some of the crowd noise generated for the Battle of Helms Deep was derived from an International Cricket match that took place around the time of filming?? Genius huh!!? A reminder, don't forget to bring your imagination!
The locals know this location as Poets Corner, however at Ka Rawe, we know it & show it as part of the Riven Anduin! Similar to the Dry Creek Quarry, whilst much has changed here in the last 25 years, what hasn't changed is that Poets corner served as part of the River Anduin where the Fellowship travelled in boats after leaving Lothlorien. Our guide will share other interesting facts regarding this location as we do throughout our journey, we bring these facts to life with supporting imagery.
ISENGARD We continue our journey a little deeper in to the Hutt Valley & as we slip off the main thoroughfare, we encounter what the locals know as Harcourt Park but we prefer to recognize as Isengard! A great opportunity to recreate one of the shots from the movie where the background still looks largely similar to how it did those 25 years ago. We showcase some of Peter's ingenuity as we reimagine how he shot some of the scenes & how they morphed into the final images you see on screen. As always, our guide is happy to act as photographer for you & has images to share to fuel your imagination! And we share a little insiders knowledge as we go.
Well if you ever wanted to experience the beautiful scenery & mature that New Zealand is renowned for, then look no further than Kaitoke Regional Park. We prefer to think of it as Rivendell! Once again we marvel at Peters ingenuity as we share how composite scenes are created & talk a little about the use of miniatures & bigatures! There can be no mistake that Kaitoke Park was used in the filming of Lord of the Rings, as there are many items & land marks to showcase this fact. Fantastic photo opportunities (again) as we escape the van to soak up the serenity & imagine just what it looked like some 27 years ago. Your guide will once again share some little known facts with you, show you some imagery from the film & act as you personal photographer. Magic!
DROP OFF To conclude our journey, we head back to the city & we rejoice in the success & fun that our day brought to alll!
Nathan is a very patriotic and knowledgeable about everything LOTR and Wellington. He takes the time to find out what you want to get out of the experience so that you are not disappointed. Highly recommend
We had the most amazing day exploring beautiful Wellington! Blessed to have a wind free, sun filled day too! Nathan our guide was absolutely brilliant!! His stories and enthusiasm made the day fly! He felt like a part of the fam by the end of it! Seeing so many locations where LOTR was filmed, learning some extra facts and getting a chance to recreate some scenes was a lot of fun - and through it all we remained amazed at just how beautiful Wellington is!! 10/10 for sure!!!
Nathan was a very nice guy, showing us all the sites with pictures taken during the LOTR filming to show how it was. Nothing was too much trouble for him and his enthusiasm for his town, LOTR and NZ was infectious. He had lots of information about the filming, the director and current filming to impart. He was also able to share about living in Wellington for us to compare with living overseas. He took us to a local bakery to grab lunch with the local option very cheap but good and an art deco cinema next door with more luxury and a price tag to match. So we could have our choice with no fuss or hassle. The weta workshop was way more interesting than we had expected and the whole day was very enjoyable with a few little surprises from Nathan along the way. Highly recommend this tour.
We had such a great day seeing LotR sights in Wellington! We had previously been on a 12-day Red Carpet Tours tour, but my husband had broken his ankle right before our trip and we could not participate in some of the activities during the Red Carpet tour due to this. Cue Nathan to save the day when we returned to Wellington and my husband's ankle had healed some. He took us to all the filming locations that we had missed and ones that our previous tour had not included and we had a blast! Nathan was so kind and accommodating, answered all our questions, and provided a wonderful commentary. Highly recommend!
Our tour covered Lord of the Rings and so much more. Sam, our guide, drove and walked us around all the Lord of the Rings sites and the Weta tour. But he also highlighted neighborhoods, Wellington history and events and views. We also enjoyed learning about plants and trees native to New Zealand and Sam’s humor. Made for a fun day.
The full-day LOTR tour with guide-extraordinaire Nathan has been a highlight of my trip to New Zealand. Since tourism is a little slower at this time of year, we ended up on what became a private tour. Nathan was unfailingly knowledgeable, friendly, super organized, and willing to play photographer, making the whole experience seamless and enjoyable. He even took us to an excellent pie shop when we mentioned liking New Zealand pies! And of course, Weta was everything I hoped it would be! I highly recommend this tour for any major or minor LOTR fans - it is an excellent way to not only indulge your LOTR fandom, but also experience and explore Wellington and its surrounding beauty. Thank you Nathan!! You helped to make this trip truly unforgettable!
This is an amazing tour! Our guide, Nathan, was incredibly personable and knowledgeable, providing fascinating insights into the filming of Lord of the Rings, as well as New Zealand and the Māori culture. Seriously, it is the best excursion we have ever taken. Highly recommend!
I thought this tour was awesome! Natalie was wonderful. My only reason for only giving 4 stars was because lunch was at 2:00. That is way to late for lunch when you have dinner plans in the evening. I recommend they move the lunch to an earlier time.
Interesting tour, visited several of the sites where the films were made. Guide was excellent, very familiar with the films and had photos from the film to show us the scenes at each location. Visit to Weta Workshop was fascinating.
This was a good small group tour. The guide was knowledgeable on The Lord of the Rings and shared other trivia with us.
Tour guide was very good, got everyone to participate. A thoroughly enjoyable trip. Would definitely recommend.
We booked this tour as a separate cruise ship excursion and it was excellent right from the custom pick up and drop off at the port to the immersive commentary. Nathan was our guide and he was fantastic! If you’re a Lord of the Rings fan, you can’t go wrong with this tour. Keep in mind, though, that this is a tour of the filming SITES; the movie sets aren’t there anymore, but with the help of photos from the movies and Nathan’s context of how the scenes were shot, you get an extraordinary view into the whole process. The Weta Cave was quite interesting, too. My only comment would be that although we all voted on it, lunch was really rushed because my husband and I were in the first group for the Weta tour so we had 15 minutes to wait in line, order, and eat our food (which was about 5 minutes) before the tour began. The second set of folks had 20 more minutes. But I would very much recommend this tour, especially if you’re a cruise ship passenger. Nathan made sure we kept to schedule and had us back in plenty of time.
Nathan was a fabulous guide! His passion for the movie as well as his home town is truly remarkable! The areas we visited were beautiful and the picture he painted from the movie was great! Loved the visit to Weta; so great to see how things come to life. Highly recommend!
Super location tour with lots of information and movie photos to compare. Sam was enthusiastic and informative.
Excellent excursion! Our guide Nathan was fantastic! Extremely knowledgeable and passionate about Wellington and NZ and detailed knowledge of LOTR and cinematic efforts in NZ.
LOTR fan? Want to see film location and what New Zealand has to offer? This tour is for you! Our Nathan was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! He had great detail knowledge of LOTR. Some stuff I didn't even know. All the location was great as a fan. WETA shop was my fav! I like how Nathan was cautious of our Cruise ship departure time and made sure we had enough time to make it back on time. Highly recommended tour.
Nathan was a wonderful, knowledgeable guide…we learned a lot about Wellington as well as Lord of the Rings. It was a small group and he took his time taking pictures for us, recreating scenes, and giving us advice to enhance our stay on Wellington.
This Lord of the Rings tour was very well planned. We saw a rain forest in one direction, a woodsy location in a park, with lots of pictures showing how it appeared in the movies, and hearing about how the director accomplished all that. Small hikes in each, beautiful places. Got a small tour of downtown Wellington. Saw lots of beautiful scenery on the way to the Weta Cave Experience, which was a real eye-opening look at creating costumes, props and special effects for movies. Nathan told us a lot about life in New Zealand, and we appreciated his experience and extensive knowledge. It was a wonderful, full, charming, delightful day for us!!
Nathan is a super friendly and nice tour guide. We leaned a lot from the trip. Nathan did a very good job and we enjoyed the tour very much.
What an excellent tour! So informative and a must do for any Lord of the Rings fan! Nathan was so play AWESOME and such a wealth of knowledge and made the day so enjoyable! We highly recommend this tour and so glad we went on the extended tour. They took great care to get us back to the cruise ship in time and were extremely professional. A truly worry free day! A+++ Would definitely do this tour again!
We had a fabulous experience with Nathan, our guide! I am a big LOTR fan and this tour was amazing. Nathan was friendly, knowledgeable and helpful - and he was also an extra in the Return of the King as an Orc!!
Nathan was a fantastic guide who went above and beyond to show us the Lord of the Rings filming locations. His knowledge of the background information on the set up, filming and creativity to make things work was amazing along with his knowledge of the movie scenes and dialogue. His interaction with our group made it a wonderful experience. We loved this tour.
Nathan and Ian did a wonderful job providing so much information and helping us reimagine lots of LOTR scenes from all the various locations we went to. We had such an enjoyable time on the the tour. Every stop was a chance to see and learn more. Highly recommend the tour. Exceptional guides.
We had a great time. First of all Nathan picked us up not in a van instead we got the chance to experience the whole Tour in a BMW in private. It was only possible because we were the only ones that day and yes maybe they could have cancelled the tour but they did not. He was an amazing guide and shared so much knowledge with us also small fun facts about the production and also about New zealand. He answered almost every question we had and we definitly saw a lot of the filming locations. We recreated the scences and laughed at the pictures later. Nathan brought small props for some spots. Included is also a tour in the weka workshop where you can look at all different props for different movies. It was very interesting and interactive. If you like lord of the rings this tour is definetly a recommendation! And Nathan is really the best tour guide for this!
When booking the tour we were expecting to be apart of a mini bus of people. Nathan picked us up from hotel reception in a luxury BMW sedan since we were the only guests, and gave us a private full day LOTR tour. Nathan was amazing and really helped bring the film locations to life! He even got to show off his great photography skills and in-depth knowledge of the LOTR and Wellington as a whole. The included WETA workshop tour was a great experience as we got to see behind the scenes to all the movie magic! The full day tour finished off with the amazing views from Mount Victoria! When Nathan dropped us off, he gave us a traditional Māori farewell and even some suggestions for activities and food for the rest of our stay in Wellington! This is the best for LOTR fans and even those new to the franchise will enjoy the natural and magical beauty behind the locations. Huge thank you to Nathan for a fantastic day, good laughs, great banter, and incredible insight!
Nathan our guide was amazing, knowledgeable, chatty, full of trivia and interesting insights into the city, the movies and New Zealand!
I was picked up on time from the hotel then transferred to the bus with Hamish as driver and tour guide. It was a fabulous tour and Hamish was a fantastic guide. We went to Mount Victoria Lookout and forest where some of the scenes from Lord of the Rings were filmed….it was the ‘tumbling’ scene and Hamish really brought it to life. Then it was onto Weta…an amazing tour. Learned so much about the process of creating props, prosthetics and make up and the precision and skill involved. The guide at the Weta tour was also excellent…this young man started off with clay models and he explained that this is a continually evolving process. Then Hamish took us to the river where the boat scenes were filmed then it was on to lunch. We were offered a roast lunch, dessert and tea/coffee. Then it was on to Rivendell and a great walk through the temperate rainforest where Hamish described both the scenes filmed here as well as elaborating on the vegetation in the area as well as the fact that Peter Jackson was very protective of the area during filming. Very environmentally conscious. From there we went to Harcourt Park and then Hamish drove us back to the city and dropped off at our hotels. An amazing day and a tour that I can highly recommend.
Small group... only 3 couples .. GREAT experience and you couldn't ask for a better tour guide than Nathan. The Weta Workshop tour was very cool and stopping at different shooting locations was amazing and reenacting scenes was a lot of fun. Highly recommend !
We visited Wellington and were looking for a LoTR full day trip which included Weta Cave. We chose Ka Rawe because the trip takes you further out to other filming locations. Nathan picked us up and was very enthusiastic and knowledgable about the areas where the scenes had been filmed (as well as how he also was involved in the film). There were 2 of us on the day trip but it didn’t matter as Nathan amended the trip to account for some of the beauty and nature near to the filming locations such as showing us a Rata tree in Rivendell. We cannot say enough how amazing Nathan made the day tour for us, not hurst showing us the LoTR locations and amazing natural spots but also helping with taking photos to mimic promo/film shots. Ka Rawe is Māori for that’s amazing and you will be left feeling that way when you book this tour.
Nathan was a fantastic guide. He had wonderful stories about LOTR (my favorite) and about various places and experiences. We went to the WETA Cave - fun tour with lots of information about making movies, special effects, items from movies, etc. Then we went to see some locations where LOTR were filmed (like Victoria Park). Because our cruise ship hit port at 1 pm, we weren't able to see all the locations planned (traffic was busy by 5), but Nathan pivoted and we went on the cable car, saw the "beehive" and other government buildings. Much better to make our cruise ship deadline than see a couple sights. Nathan took great care of us.
Our tour guide Nathan made the experience just as memorable if not more than visiting the locations themselves. I highly suggest booking this tour for anyone who is interested.
Thoroughly enjoyable tour, great guide, completely recommend it! It includes the WETA tour too, thank you so much for a great day!
This was an amazing tour! Nathan is very knowledgeable and tailored the trip towards what we wanted to do and see, he is the perfect host and truly enjoyed spending the day with him, he took a ton of pictures and even set up fun scenarios for us to participate in, I am vegan, and he actually stopped at a vegan bakery so I could have a nice lunch, even though it wasn't on the itinerary! Weta workshop is not to be missed, Nathan gets 5 stars, i can't recommend him highly enough!
Beautiful tour to admire some of the most iconic locations from The Lord of the Rings! Our guide David organized the day very well, also explaining and telling us many things about the city! The Weta tour is very nice, where you can admire incredible props and discover unimaginable things about the behind-the-scenes! Highly recommended experience!
Very nice day with our excellent guide Nathan. He is a true enthusiast and great connoisseur of all things Lord of the Rings. He is interested in his guests, asks very good questions and knows how to put smiles on all faces. He loves his country New Zealand and speaks passionately about it.
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