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And see the sights of Wellington

WELLINGTON was the main location for The Lord of the Rings trilogy shot in New Zealand between October 1999 and December 2000. Take time during your stay to experience Middle Earth and all its diversity!
Due to conservation and legal requirements no remnants of the film sets from Lord of the Rings remain. However, there is still a lot of Middle Earth to see and activities to do.
Eastbourne
Hop on the Dominion Post ferry for a short ride across the harbour to Eastbourne's Days Bay. While the other Rings stars lived in Seatoun during filming, Sir Ian McKellan resided in Eastbourne and reportedly loved the ferry ride to the city.
While there enjoy breakfast in one of the many outdoor cafes, or a stroll along the picturesque beach.
Mount Victoria
Drive up to Mount Victoria. Numerous scenes from all three movies were shot in Mount Victoria's City Belt, including Hobbiton Woods where the hobbits are stalked by Ringwraiths in the Fellowship of the Ring. Head to the top of Mount Victoria for fantastic views of Wellington city and harbour.
Chocolate Fish Cafe
The café scene is vibrant in Wellington and during filming it wasn't difficult to spot the stars enjoying a break over a cappuccino. Drive around Wellington's coastal road, past Oriental Bay and the airport to the Chocolate Fish Cafe in Scorching Bay on Wellington's South Coast. With its stunning views out to sea and relaxed atmosphere this quirky cafe was a particularly popular haunt of the stars.
Home of the Hobbits
After lunch continue your drive around the South Coast - to the quaint seaside suburb of Seatoun where most of the cast and crew lived during filming. Seatoun is also home to Peter Jackson and was the setting for a number of scenes in the trilogy.
Bree, home of the Prancing Pony Inn where the four hobbits take overnight refuge, was filmed at Fort Dorset in Seatoun.
Surf's Up! Continue driving around the coast past Breaker Bay and the Wellington Airport. Further around the coast just past the airport is Lyall Bay, where Billy Boyd (Pippin) and Viggo Mortensen (Aragorn) learned to surf!
Dining Suggestions:
Brava: A favourite night spot of Liv Tyler (Arwen) and Elijah Wood (Frodo), Brava has wide ranging appeal offering a sophisticated dining edge and featuring an all-day menu.
The Green Parrot: Viggo Mortensen was a big fan of this inner city steakhouse, even going so far as to hold a signing there for his own poetry, art and photography books. The Green Parrot is a backpacker regular that has been serving up big, old-fashioned meals for over 27 years.
Studio 9: Wellington's primary electronica dance venue and another bar Elijah Wood and Liv Tyler would often visit.
The Four Quarters
Explore the heart of Wellington city and delve into Downtown's four quarters. With as many cafes per capita as New York City, Downtown Wellington is the perfect place to pick up a bite to eat.
Liv Tyler, who lived in Wellington for the best part of a year during filming shopped in the Wellington fashion design stores Starfish, Karen Walker, World and Nom D.
Rural Rings Locations Head north-east out of Wellington city on the Hutt Valley Urban Motorway to take in some further filming locations. On the way you will pass by the Hutt River and Poet's Corner in Upper Hutt which were used in the filming of The Lord of the Rings to depict scenes from the Great River Anduin. Harcourt Park in Upper Hutt was also used in filming the ancient Gondorian fortress of Isengard.
Ahead on the left hand side of the motorway, you will see a quarry just off the main road was the location for a huge medieval castle built specifically for filming Helm's Deep and Minas Tirith.
Further on towards Martinborough, at the bottom of the Rimutaka Ranges, stop at Kaitoke Regional Park and visit Rivendell and the River Anduin. For the River Anduin location, take the first Kaitoke Park entrance on your left after Upper Hutt which is also signposted 'Te Marua Speedway'. For the Rivendell location take the second entrance to Kaitoke Regional Park (approximately ten minutes past the Te Marua entrance) and follow the signposts that say 'Rivendell' - there is a signpost at the actual location that gives some information on the filming that took place there.
* For further information click on purenz.com/homeofmiddleearth