Wellington's Original Hd Lotr Experience - Includes Weta Tour

It’s a smaller, quick version of a full day tour. Gina gave us so much information about early days of filming up to current facts. Great tour guide.

Wonderful experience we learned so much our guide was very helpful and the weta workshop docent was excellent. The cruise line made us walk the one mile to the car park the only drawback

We had a very nice half day tour, picked up near Te Papa Museum by Natalie, who first brought us up Mt. Victoria for a city overview photo opp, then down the hillside for several location opportunities. She was very informative, providing background information about the filming, taking photos of groups or couples, and conducting our walks in a considerate and safety-first manner. She then drove us to the Weta workshop in Miramar giving us more insights into the impact of the film industry on Wellington, offering a running commentary on places we passed en route. At the workshop she turned us over to a guide who brought us through a series of rooms featuring aspects of Weta's work including prosthetics and models. We saw artisans working in a glassed off workshop and had the chance to hold some props. We had the chance to try our hands at sculpting with aluminum foil sheets, coached by a very genial and long-tenured Weta team member. At the end, we had the chance to pose for a photo, wielding prop weapons. Our guide's commentary throughout was informative and good-humored. After the tour, Natalie drove her passengers to a few downtown hotels, taking the scenic route into town and telling us about some of the philanthropy of Weta's founders. We got more out of the half-day experience than I had expected.

This was a fantastic experience both in the workshop & out in the forest where a lot of the scenes were filmed from the first movie so it's a must for all LOTR fans.

Super informative and interesting LOTR tour! Would definitely recommend for any Lord of the Rings fans!

We had a fantastic tour. Our guide was so knowledgeable and friendly. Lots of interesting trivia about Wellington and LOR. We enjoyed all of stops and Weta Workshop was incredible. Recommend this tour 100%.

Great views over the city , short walk to LOTR filming sites and a tour of Weta workshop. Knowledgeable guide to keep it interesting.

So, so awesome!! Our drive/tour guide had been an extra on several occasions and was just had a wealth of knowledge. We were overjoyed with the Weta experience and our Guide there was a nerd—happily so—and yay! For us as he, too, lived, ate and breathed info about LOTR movies and Weta’s part in the productions. We will definitely seek out Viator excursions vs. cruise ship excursions! Thank you!!!!

The tour relied primarily on the visit to WETI. We stood at Mt Victoria and the guide pointed to different locations in the far distance that were shooting scenes wr wouldn't visit. We went to a wooded area where three scenes were filmed, then to WETI for a 1.5 hour tour. 'The Original LOTR Tour' is not a significant tour for LOTR fans.

Great tour and great tour guide, highly recommend - my partner has never watched lord of the rings but still loved it

Excellent driver/tour guide. WETA tour guide was also excellent. Drive to filming locations was local, walking in the wooded areas was a plus.

My tour guide Sarah was excellent, being very welcoming, showing interest in each of the members of the tour, and having a great knowledge of both Wellington and Lord of the Rings. The Weta Workshop tour is a must-see. This was a great introduction to Wellington, and I’d have gladly picked the full day tour if I had more time.

The experience was wonderful. Randy, our guide, was full of fun and inciteful knowledge. His part was better than the Weta Tour. Chewy (Michael) helped us more than I can say at the port.

Excellent commentary throughout tour. Hamish, our guide full of interesting facts about the areas. Cannot recommend high enough this tour. Great price, excellent communication, with provider.

We found Natalie very informative, friendly and funny. She answered all our questions and told us all about Wellington as well on the way there and back. She’s lives in wellington so has great knowledge of the area

This was a fantastic experience! Our tour guide Ben was very experienced, knowledgeable and personable! Whether you are just learning about Lord of the Rings, a huge fan, or just want to see some beautiful landscapes, this is an amazing tour for all! The Weta Workshop experience was also fantastic! It was really eye opening to see how far wardrobe, props, and animatronics have come in movies! Definitely recommend this to anyone of any age!

Ben was an AWESOME tour guide. The amount of enthusiasm and knowledge he has about LOTR and Wellington is amazing. Because of this, he makes everyone feel enthusiastic about everything. It makes a difference! We loved touring the park filming location and the Weta studio. We had to use our imagination for the scenes and the pictures help. We were also lucky that we had the most beautiful sunny day after cool and cloudy weather. Highly recommend!

What a fabulous time we had looking at Middle Earth. Dixie was a fantastic guide and her enthusiasm really brought to life the places we’d only seen on film before. Weta was amazing and they still have all the original swords such as Sting and prosthetics from the 6 movies.

We couldn't have asked for a more personable or knowledgable guide than Jack. He is an expert on the Lord of the Rings movies and shared many interesting details on our tour. When someone loves their job. It shows. It was a fascinating look at New Zealand's film industry, and we were back to our ship in plenty of time.

Dixie was a great tour guide and shared a lot of information. She took time to take pictures, answer questions and for us with that are not true LOTR fans she made it very interesting. The WETA tour was also fascinating and worth the visit.

Our guide was extremely knowledgeable in all things lord of the rings. If you are a fan it is definitely a great tour.

Really excellent and our tour guide was extremely informative and helpful. Nice to see some of the film locations along with the exhibition of the high quality props. Certainly recommend it to any LoTR enthusiasts.

We had a wonderful time. Very knowledgeable tour guide. Very interesting and informative experience. Even my parents (who never watched the movies) enjoyed it.

The tour guide/driver, Sarah, is so energetic and knowledgeable. She provided so much info on the locations we visited and how they relate to the movie trilogy. I could not recommend her more for this tour. Flynn from the Weta Workshop part of the tour is also amazing. You can tell he loves working there and to be able to tell about the history and work of Weta. This tour (lasting roughly 4 hours) is a must for anyone who loves Lord of the Rings and wants more behind the scenes info. You get picked up right at the port and dropped off there, or alternately can get off within the city and find your own way back if you want to further explore the city after the tour.

Interesting to see a few of the filming sites. Weta workshop was good. Fun to see all the movies they have been involved in.

It was just the two of us and the paddle down the river was awesome. Beyond beautiful. Communication with Deon was great

Great tour from start to finish! Driver picked us up on time & we met up with the main tour bus. The guide gave a well informed explanation of a few film locations on the way to WETA Cave. We also stopped for a glorious view of Wellington from the peak with some nice weather. The guide’s explanations & pictures really brought the scenes to life. But the best part for us was hearing all the behind the scenes efforts that went into pulling off the final results seen in the movies. After visiting the film locations, the tour of the studio was the cherry on top. It really is fascinating to see how all the materials for different movies are designed & fabricated. Even the non-LOTR fan in our group left impressed with the tour!

Interesting, but very expensive. Part of the tour is in a park which you can visit for free. The guide was very knowledgeable, but apart from the Weta workshop the tour wasn’t anything special

Mark was incredibly engaging as he took us through each place! He is such a fun storyteller and was a delight to listen to.

Wonderful tour! Would book again, 10/10. Chewy was very informative about LOTR, funny and genuine. Got to see heaps with lots of behind the scenes information.

Our guide was very knowledgeable, an extra in the movies, shared his enthusiasm with us. We geeked out from seeing all of the film locations, costumes, and props. This excursion is so worth it for any LOTR fans!

Robbie, was a great tour guide with first hand experiences filming the LOTR (and other movies). It’s great having a local guide.

We were picked up by Grant at the cruise ship terminal at 9am, and taken around Wellington for a bit. Grant was clearly knowledgeable about both Wellington and the LOTR impact on the city. He pointed out various sites and also showed us various places owned by Peter Jackson's company to produce effects and props. He took us to the Weta workshop, which we visited for about 90 minutes. We were taken on a tour by Caylar (sp?), who was fantastic. He actually worked there in one of the departments but also gave tours. That tour was amazing. He showed us props, mechanical creatures and fake body parts. I've never seen this kind of thing before. We were all sad when it was over. I wanted to buy a T Shirt from their gift shop but there were no Large ones, which was a bit disappointing. This had nothing to do with the tour people. From there, Grant took us up into the hills where he showed us where several LOTR scenes were filmed. He discussed them in detail and gave us an opportunity to recreate them for photos. It was really interesting and fun. We then drove around looking at more of PJ's facilities including the world's largest blue screen. Afterwards, we drove to the top of a hill and got some great views of the lakes and surrounding areas. Grant talked a lot about PJ and showed us his new house. He also discussed the city and it's surroundings. Grant really added enthusiasm and great information to the tour. My wife isn't a huge LOTR fan, but she enjoyed it quite a bit. I really loved it. It's a good value for the price and a time you won't forget.

We are not huge LOTR fans but this tour was great. While I didn’t follow some of the commentary the energy and excitement of our tour guide, Robbie, made it a great experience. He brought first hand stories because he was an extra for all 3 movies and shared lots of info on the cinematics. He was great but Sully at the Weta Workshop was even better. The Weta workshop showed props, costumes, prosthetics and animatronics used in LOTR and other films. Sully loved his job and his passion oozed from him which made the tour special.

The walk around wasnt very exciting but the tour guide made it as interesting as possible but only went on the first part. The weta workshop was incredible and interesting and I was blown away by the talent and expertise of the staff. I never realised how much Sci Fi that they were involved with.

The half day experience was a great introduction into the making of LOTR and special effects. The weather didn’t cooperate and it would’ve been nice if we could have switched the order of activities to be indoors during the rain, but I know that isn’t usually possible on such short notice. Even in the rain it was fun to see where some of the scenes were made. The visit to the Weta workshop was really interesting. The guide was very knowledgeable and the hands-on aspect, actually getting to touch objects used in the films, made it much more impactful.

The guide was personable and knowledgeable. Further he was prepared to go the extra step without being asked. An enjoyable tour.

Was a fantastic tour. Gina was so knowledgeable. I discovered more info about LOTR that I did not know. Also, she explained why they named the workshop WETA. GINA…you ROCK!!!

Great communication with the tour operator Chewy who was also very accommodating and our tour guide Grant was excellent, knowledgeable and very helpful. Highly recommend this tour with the pick up and drop off service.

Very fun tour for the Lord of the Rings fan! Always fun to hear about the filming of great movies. *****

The driver/guide was super knowledgeable and entertaining. He really made the journey enjoyable. I had originally booked just the half day tour but I was enjoying the experience so much I asked to change my booking to the full day tour. The driver/guide had a QR code that allowed me to change my booking in 5 minutes. I'm glad I did!

Hamish was an excellent tour guide. Very knowledgeable of the locations in which he is presenting, told many jokes and kept us involved by asking questions about LOTR. Gave us tips of ensuring our safety and showed concern if anyone got injured, which we did not. If we had time today, I would have asked for the same tour with him all over again. Get Hamish, no one does it better.

We were really looking forward to the half-day Lord of the Rings tour, but unfortunately, it didn’t quite live up to expectations. The studio portion was underwhelming. While it’s interesting to see where some of the magic happened, we weren’t allowed to touch anything or take any photos—a restriction that wasn’t clearly communicated at the time of booking. That really took away from the experience, especially for fans hoping to bring back even a small memento. The visit to a filming location was also a letdown. Since the films relied heavily on CGI, being there without the set-piece didn’t feel very immersive or visually connected to what we saw on screen. To make matters worse, our guide - though friendly - was only a background extra in the films and didn’t bring much depth or storytelling to the experience. He also seemed rushed, hurrying the group along to make it to his next (full-day) tour. It felt more like a checkbox experience than a true fan journey. If you're a die-hard fan, you may still find some value, but we’d recommend looking into more in-depth tours with professional guides and better access. This one felt more like a missed opportunity than a Middle-earth adventure.

A wonderful time indeed. Had a great day and learned much of LotR and general Wellington/NZ history. We opted at the last minute to go for a full day instead of half and they were very accomodating. So glad we did! Our guide, Andy, was charming, passionate, insightful and possessed of first hand experience of the LotR moviemaking lore. We saw tons of the greater city and countryside from a comfy bus, with a satisfying lunch of hot meats, roasted and steamed veg and fresh salad, with refreshing chilled juice to drink then tea, coffee and cakes for afters. Weta Studios was incredible. The props and artwork they showed us, it was a genuine thrill. I mean, for crying out loud, they have Aragorn’s sword on the wall!! Can’t recommend highly enough!

Fabulous day the guide was so informative. Loved the places we visited so awesome that we also went to places where Lord of the Rings was filmed. Loved the Weta workshop amazing.

Ross was our tour guide for the half day tour. He was a great host and knew a lot about the LOTR franchise, New Zealand filmmaking and facts about Wellington and New Zealand. We had a lot of fun and I wish Ross all the best with his Firefighting adventures.

It was very thorough and Ross was awesome. He was very knowledgeable and had fantastic information. The excursion covered all major scenes and production involved with LOTR.

Excellent tour, highly recommend. Our tour guide Marc was an actor in the LOTR films and gave some great behind the scenes information about the locations. Was great fun and a true geek paradise. Weta was incredible. A great tour package.

The best experience ever! The guide was amazing and lovely, she made my experience so comfortable and was so knowledgeable! I will definitely return and do the full day next time I’m in New Zealand!