This past weekend I went on a road trip with some friends around the southern part of New Zealand’s North Island.
Our goals for the weekend: check out some Lord of the Rings filming sites, see some other incredible things, and have fun!
Throughout the trip we tried to match the exact locations from LOTR filming with some pictures and maps that we had. Although we may have not ended up in the exact locations, I can say that I was at least in the area. Either way the places were awesome and I was with my friends, so all was well!
We began our journey early Saturday morning from Wellington by driving 15 minutes outside the city to Red Rocks (the real ones this time).
The area around Red Rocks is where some footage from LOTR took place where Frodo, Sam, and Gollum made their way to the Black Gates of Mordor. In the area we stumbled upon a seal colony that was just chillin’ on some rocks on the beach!
After Red Rocks we made our way back into the city to pick up a few more things and then headed to Upper Hutt to explore Harcourt Park (opening scenes of Isengard) and Kaitoke Regional Park (Rivendell). 
At Harcourt Park we not only found the filming area, but we also found a playground with a flying fox (zipline)!!! So of course, we had to go and relieve our elementary school years and go play on it!
At the Kaitoke Regional Park we found Rivendell, except I was quite disappointed to discover that the magnificent elfish home was not there. Actually, nothing that I thought would be there was. 
I had to remind myself that filming was over ten years ago so things are bound to have changed. There were some posts and signs that showed pictures from the movie scenes and then provided us with a tree or piece of land that were in the scene to find. 
Once we found the designated tree or land it was possible to use our imagination to see the entirety of the scene before our eyes… but sadly, it all was really just one tiny spot of forest. Nothing too elvish about that =/
In the evening on Saturday we made our way to our campsite near the Putangirua Pinnacles. Now, we should have gotten to the campsite way earlier than we did…but we couldn’t find the entrance to it and so we drove back and forth along the same winding road in the pitch black before finally finding it.
Not only was the winding road in the dark enough to freak us out – but we were driving on the coast so the ocean was just one wrong turn away!
At one point the waves were so high that they were crashing on the road! It was awesomely terrifying! Once we found the campsite we set up our palace tent (3 rooms), chatted a bit, and then called it a night.
The next day packed up the tent
and made our way to go hike to the Putangirua Pinnacles (The Path of Death in LOTR). All I was saw is “WOW”. The place was incredible! The Pinnacles are huge sedimentary rocks that were towering way above our heads and at any moment it felt like they could easily break and come crushing down on us. We walked right into the valley of the Pinnacles and then took another trail that led to the top of a mountain and gave us a great view from above!
Once we made our way back to the car we drove further down the road to the 
southernmost point on the North Island to Cape Palliser. There we climbed up to the Cape Palliser Lighthouse. The stairway up to the lighthouse is huge and steep! It contains 252 stairs and I
had the brilliant idea of running up them…let’s just say I made it halfway before I had to stop and gasp for air while the people who started up the stairs walking caught up to me. It was quite the incline!
The view from atop was just breath taking. I have no other words to describe it…this country never ceases to amaze me and I find myself with simply saying “wow” all the time.
Adding to my amazement and continuing with my overuse of “wow”, Cape Palliser contains New Zealand’s largest seal colony, which of course we went to see and ended up directly in the middle of!
Tons of seals were scattered all over the nearby area – sunbathing on rocks, sleeping in the grass and bushes, and playing in the ocean. We didn’t realize the seals would be so far on shore that when we went to go climb some nearby rocks we ended up startling a mother seal and some pups hiding near a bush. It was then that we took a moment to look around only to discover that there were many more around in the area. We had to be careful with each move we made for not only their safety but ours as well. I wasn’t really looking into getting in a fight with a seal that day. 
However, taking my attention off of where I was walking for a moment I ended up frozen with terror and excitement as a seal popped its face up from a rock three feet away from mine. Eventually we managed to climb atop a large rock which overlooked a huge pool of water blocked off by some other rocks where we discovered a ton of seals swimming and sun bathing. It was an incredible site! Like being in a zoo, but only in the wild; definitely a huge highlight of the trip overall. The place was amazing, beautiful, peaceful…there are no words to properly describe it.
After our fun with the seals we drove North and made a few more stops before I got dropped off in Palmerston North for school the next day and the others made their way back down to Wellington. It was a great weekend exploring more of this incredible country.
Until the next trip! – Brad
Emerson Was Right 
