Wellington - Day 3 - LORD OF THE RINGS TOUR!!!
Now I’m going to go into what was, quite possibly, the best day I’ve experienced in New Zealand so far. Yes, I’m talking about the full-day Lord of the Rings Tour all around the Wellington area. Eight brilliant, glorious hours of touring all around the city and checking out the exact locations used for the filming of the trilogy…I was in heaven. A word of warning to those of you who do not consider yourselves “fans” - I’m going to be spazzing out here. Feel free to duck and cover and wear a smoking jacket.
So the whole thing started just as we were pulling into Wellington on Stray. As usual, the driver sent a clipboard around for different activities and asked if anyone was interested in booking them right there. If you book through Stray, you usually get a little bit of a discount and don’t have to worry about figuring it out yourself. And, of course, the Lord of the Rings Tour was right up there with everything else. The one that I had heard about was more in the $40-60 range, but this one was…a bit more than that. I was torn on whether I should spend that much money so early on or not, but I finally talked myself into it, rightly deciding that I would live in agony for the rest of my days if I did not immediately sign up for this and then walk on clouds for the rest of the week.
That was on the day that we arrived, so I had plenty of time to get sufficiently psyched up for the whole thing. Not like I really needed it, but I was definitely pumped that Monday morning. I had to be downstairs and over by Base Wellington by 10:15, and, unfortunately I took too long to get ready and had to skip on breakfast. Oh well. Was too excited to eat anyways. Then the little van pulled up to the curb with the Wellington Movie Tours logo on the side and I was stoked. The guy running the entire operation was named “Ted” and was very, very cool. He definitely knew his stuff, but he was also super friendly and laidback - which made him seem less like a tour guide and more like a travel buddy. I guess his brother, Chris Guise, works at Weta Workshop and got his start there when they were just beginning to film the movies. That was before the company exploded with success and got ridiculously well-known, so he was there when it was still small and intimate. Now he works in design and has a higher up position at Weta than he did before. A combination of gossip from him and excessive re-watching of the extended edition interviews has left Ted with a pretty good idea of where everything was filmed.
I admit that I was a little worried about that at first. Since I’m pretty diehard myself, I already had a good idea where some of the scenes were filmed, and I was worried that he would just take us up to Mount Victoria and say, “So this was where they shot the Flight to the Ford. Walk around and take pictures for 20 minutes or so and then we’ll get back in the van.” Instead, he took us to the exact spot where the actors stood and provided photographic evidence in the form of movie stills and a laptop that he carried around with him. When we got to the right location, he would play the appropriate scene from the movie and then point out certain trees or rocks that lined up with the shot. So you knew for sure that it was legit.
Anyways, he showed up at Base and loaded me into the van with an older Canadian couple and a quiet Austrian guy. The Canadians were also doing the full-day, but the Austrian had to leave after lunch. Overall, it was a very tight-knit and friendly bunch. Ted started off by giving a little introduction speech and driving out towards the edge of the city. It was quickly established that I was the biggest nerd of the group even though I tried to hide it, and everyone else ranged from “I’ve seen them once or twice” to “I can tell you who Richard Taylor and Fran Walsh are,” so there was a general mix.
First we started off towards the Dry Creek Quarry on the outskirts of town, where they built the sets for Helm’s Deep and - later on - Minas Tirith. The area appealed to them because there was so much natural rock in the area that they didn’t have to worry about manufacturing a lot of the look. They basically just built the set straight up against the mountain and used the cliffs as extra decoration. Then, when they had finished three months of night shoots with Helm’s Deep, they tore down parts of the set and rearranged other pieces to build Minas Tirith in the same place. So the front gate of Helm’s Deep was altered a bit in shape and became the gateway to the second level of Minas Tirith. There’s really nothing there now to show that any of it existed, but it was cool to be there anyway. I guess locals saw it going on for months and knew all about what it was for, but since it was such an unknown thing, no one bothered to take pictures of it because no one had any idea of how popular the movie would be. Then, when the movies came out, everyone rushed over to take pictures, but it had all been torn down by then. Shame.
What's left of the location
Helm's Deep from the movie
Minas Tirith from the movie
It was raining off and on all day, and the first burst came just as we were leaving the quarry. The next stop was the gardens of Isengard, which was a bit of a drive, so Ted kept us entertained with more stories and film clips as the rain continued to come and go. The bonus about the weather was that it created these amazing fog drifts across the hills, so that added an extra dreamy quality to everything.
Eat your heart out, Misty Mountains
The majority of Isengard was shot in Harcourt Park, just a ways up into the Hutt Valley. It was basically Ian McKellan and Christopher Lee walking around in costume and then the people at Weta Workshop superimposing the Tower of Orthanc and some mountains into the background. There are some very distinctive trees, however, that you can recognize from the film. The first one is right there in the foreground when Gandalf first rides up to the tower on a horse and Saruman is coming down the stairs. They set up a blue screen just behind the tree and had Ian McKellan (or maybe a stunt rider, not sure) go up to a certain mark to dismount. Then the rest was added in later. You can also faintly see the path that they created out of the grass for the horse to ride along. It’s just slightly different in texture in color along this one strip, so you can literally walk all the way from the bridge to the tower and follow the same path to the tree. The bridge itself was flipped on the screen, so it’s actually a miniature shot backwards to fit in with the rest of the scene.
Harcourt Park with evidence of the foot path
Gandalf riding out to the tower from the bridge. See the tree?
Then there’s another grove of trees just a ways off from that where Gandalf and Saruman walked while discussing the Ring being found. If I remember the featurettes correctly, I think that was Christopher Lee’s first day of shooting as well. It was pretty much just a few little trees and bushes off to the side of the track with a park bench in the front. They covered the bench up with a fake shrub for filming, but the rest of it is pretty distinct as the area they were walking through. That’s also the scene where Saruman pretty much accuses Gandalf of being a stoner on the “Halfing’s Leaf,” so there’s that, too. The cutting down of all the trees was also filmed near this area, but a fake tree was used for the actual shot. It was a hinged tree that could be pulled down and put up again over and over as they filmed the scene, and it’s actually only one tree for all of the ensuing shots. They just changed the angle of the camera and interspersed it with dialogue to make it seem like they were tearing down a lot of different trees. Ah, the magic of film making.
The same little grove used for the movie
Saruman and Gandalf walking through Isengard
We stopped at Isengard for just a bit longer, and then we moved on to one of my favorite locations - the river where Aragorn washed ashore after the Warg fight. Now, that’s not exactly a huge, memorable scene as far as the trilogy goes, but I have personal reasons for being psyched about it because, well, it’s Aragorn. I’m allowed to fangirl a bit. The actual cliff that he fell off of is right across the water from Queenstown, and the river that he floats down is also in the South Island, but the beach that he washes up on is just on the edge of the Hutt River. They brought in some sand for Viggo to lie down on and roughed him up a bit in makeup, and then they had him lie there and look half-dead. Then the horse that played Brego did his thing of kneeling down next to him and helping him up. Naturally, I had to do the same thing. I couldn’t be in the same spot and not lie down for a quick photo. In the movie stills, you can see the same rock wall in the background when he’s lying there. Awesome.
Playing dead
Aragorn getting picked up by Brego. Notice the rock wall in the background.
Then we went just a ways upstream to see the bit where Faramir wades through the water to see Boromir’s funeral boat floating past him. I think this was more of a dream/vision thing in the movie, where Faramir just “feels” like his brother has died, but it’s kind of open to interpretation. We went over there as well, but no one was willing to go knee-deep into the river for a picture since it was way too cold for that. Also, you guys have probably noticed by now that New Zealand is full of tree ferns, and Peter Jackson really didn’t want there to be any in the movie. He didn’t want people to automatically identify the scenery with New Zealand, so every time you see tree ferns in the background, they were probably subtly edited out for the movie. In this case, a big fog machine was brought in to cast a misty effect over the water, and the fog actually worked to cover them in that shot. As a side note, we found a ton of obsidian-like rocks on the shoreline there, and I guess the designers of Isengard used that particular kind of rock as a reference for the texture of the tower. Huh. Ted also explained that his brother got to do little pick-up shots every once in a while as a perk of the job, and one of them was being the hands of Gollum on a floating log. I guess he spent the entire day submerged in this freezing river for a split second shot of something hiding out in the distance. He also provided the back shot of Wormtongue when he’s just about to stab Saruman in Return of the King. They do stuff like that with whoever happens to be around at the time so that the important, main character actors can go off and film complicated scenes and don’t have to come all the way out there for something really simple.
The spot where Faramir saw Boromir's funeral boat go by
The Isengard rock that I found
Next, we were off to lunch and Rivendell. There’s a place called Kaitoke Regional Park about 12km north of Upper Hutt that’s home to some nice rainforest walks and flowing rivers. The rain was picking up again at that point, so we took shelter in a picnic area just down the road. I was absolutely starving after not having anything to eat for breakfast, so I devoured my lunch of Subway sandwiches, cookies, and juice. Luckily, everyone else was full after only two portions and I was able to get away with taking some more without feeling too greedy. Hey, they were going to throw it out anyways! Okay, so we hung out there for a while and chatted a bit about all sorts of various subjects, and then we got back in the van to drive further into the forest.
Our lunch location
The actual location of Rivendell is signposted pretty well with all sorts of arrows pointing the way. I think it’s one of the best-known locations in New Zealand. Just as we were heading onto the path for “Rivendell,” Ted unloaded the van and pulled out what looked suspiciously like a bow and arrow. Hmm… What could that be for...? More on that later. While I was pondering that, we crossed a bridge and looked out over the river. It was harder to figure out specific markers used for the movie there, but walking around definitely reminded me of Rivendell in general. It was a good thing that we had Ted with us, because I would have had no idea where to look if I was there by myself. There’s a little sign in the wood with a plaque about the set, but there aren’t really any pictures to use as a reference. Then Ted busted out a humongous portfolio of movie stills and went BAM - evidence. See that little bush there? That’s that little bush over there. He’s kind of awesome like that. And the thing that we all got out of that particular visit was that Rivendell was frickin’ tiny as a set. You think of this huge, sprawling complex in the forest, but in actuality, it was just this gazebo and a few statues in the real world. A lot of the interior parts - like the famous Council of Elrond scene - were done on sets back in the studio, and the only a few bits were shot out in the elements. The best known one was the part where the Fellowship was getting ready to depart Rivendell in the Ring Goes South. In the film, you see Legolas prancing down the stairs to go get ready and then everyone gathered around their horses. I was able to find the tree used for the shot, just to Legolas’ right. He passed right next to it going down the artificial staircase. Then, as the Fellowship is leaving, Frodo mumbles to Gandalf, “One more time, Gandalf, is it left or right?” for comedic effect, but in reality, he had to go left because the right pathway goes straight into a river. There’s literally nothing there. So Frodo’s kind of an idiot.
The tree
The clearing...apparently
More pretty pics
*Cough* How did these get in here...?
Okay, but I was even more of an idiot for doing what happened next. Remember that bow and arrow? Yeah, turns out that it had a purpose after all. Some of you might remember a certain promotional shot of Legolas that was on calendars and posters all over the country when the movies first came out. It’s basically him looking all prissy and elegant in front of a tree with his bow at the ready, yet it was never used in the actual films. Well, we found that tree. There’s really no question about it - it’s definitely the same frickin’ tree. And, oh, would any of us like to pose under it with a bow and arrow? Why, sure, that would be just dandy, thanks! Come to think of it, would you also like a cloak to wrap around your shoulders and some fake elf ears to make it more authentic? Cool! Even better! Why, that’s splendid then. We’ll just throw a great big bloody Barbie wig on top of your head and get to it then! …Wait, come again? Yeah, there is absolutely no way to feel cool wearing that thing. You feel absolutely ridiculous, and I’m not especially good with posing for pictures anyway. So there I was, nerd extraordinaire, standing in full fake-elf get-up with five cameras pointed at me and getting commands like, “Now, just give us a little pout. Make it sexy!” Which I utterly failed at. I held the face for about half a second before bursting out laughing. So nearly every photo is unusable. Oh well. I looked slightly better than the Austrian guy, at least.
Fail
What it's supposed to look like
Then it was pretty much time to move on. We briefly crossed over a swing bridge on the other side of the river and explored around a bit, but then it was time to load back up in the van. As we were driving back into the city, Ted showed us some more interviews and scenes, including some old trailers from movies that Peter Jackson had made when he was first starting out. I gotta admit…they looked pretty terrible. I mean, really, really bad. I love Peter Jackson, but I don’t think I could force myself to watch them. I think that makes what he pulled off even more incredible, though. He was basically this guy that no one had heard of and only had these cheesy, gore-filled B-movies on his resume, and he somehow convinced the producers to let him film this epic trilogy. Says a lot about his character, I think.
Swing bridge stroll
As we got closer to the city, Ted pointed out Westpac Stadium on our left, the same rugby stadium where PJ and the guys got the crowd all pumped up on Black Speech. He needed a lot of orcs to be chanting and stamping and pounding their chests for the Battle of Helm’s Deep, so he went there and put some words up on the big screen for them to yell. I remember that from the special features, so it was kind of cool to see that same stadium and go, “Oh yeah, that’s the one that he was talking about.” Then, as we neared Parliament and the Railway Station, we stopped to drop off the Austrian guy and took quite a few more people for the second half of the day. Don’t worry - it was just as long but doesn’t require quite as much detail to cover.
Westpac Stadium
The main feature of the second half of the day was Mt. Victoria - also known as the place where they filmed A Shortcut to Mushrooms, “Get Off the Road,” the Flight to the Ford, and a few snippet scenes of Aragorn and King Theoden at Dunharrow. That was the one place in the Wellington area that I knew, 100%, involved filming, but I’m so glad I didn’t try to go on my own. For one thing, it’s really, really far uphill and a good fifteen minute drive outside of the city center. On the map, it looks right next to my hostel, but that doesn’t take into account how high up the road has to curve around the hills. It would’ve taken me all day to get up there. And, secondly, once you get over the initial feeling of, “Yeah, those trees look familiar,” and, “I could picture some Nazgul chasing some hobbits through here,” it’s really difficult to place exactly which trees were used for the shots. They all look the same after a while. Luckily, Ted was prepared. First, he explained that the trees were actually very, very old pine trees that had become warped and jagged from all the wind blowing through that area. Perfect for that kind of suspenseful feeling of being chased. Then he explained about how the place was used for the very first day of shooting. I remembered that little tidbit from an interview on the DVD, but it was nice to be reminded. Before they did anything else, they loaded up Elijah, Sean, Dom, and Billy into the back of car, drove them over to a park right outside Wellington, and filmed a lot of those preliminary scenes with the city just on the other side of the trees. So that was a cool, inexpensive way to do it.
Arriving at Mt. Victoria and Ted doing his thing
First, though, he led is just to the edge of this cliff so that we were looking out over a small clearing with a rock wall behind it. Apparently Viggo and Bernard Hill stood right at the edge of the clearing, where there’s a slight rise looking down the mountain, to look down at the army of Rohan that had amassed at Dunharrow. In actuality, they were just standing there in front of a blue screen, looking down at downtown Wellington. But okay, sure, armies of Rohan. That’s why they’re professional actors, I guess. That rock wall behind them can be briefly seen in the shot as well, just where some of the tents have been set up.
Looking down at Dunharrow...or Wellington
Next, it was time for some hobbit action. I thought he was going to take us to the Hobbits Hideaway area because there was a sign for it pointing up the hill, but he led us down a little deer path instead, in the completely opposite direction. Then, just through the leaves and branches, he pointed at this one particularly big pine tree with a low-hanging, V-shaped branch just at ground level. That was the scene where Frodo was hanging out and smoking his pipe in the tree while Samwise did all of the work of cooking dinner just below. Way to be Lord of the Manor, Frodo. Make your gardener do everything. Then they hear wood elves singing nearby and go to see them leaving for the Grey Havens. Just after that, they return to the same tree area and try to get some sleep. Sam complains about a tree root digging into his back, and Frodo starts mumbling about feather pillows and comfortable beds. Yep, those trees. So it was time for some more dress up and role playing. Ted whipped out a couple of long-stemmed pipes and a frying pan with some plastic sausages glued to it, and people volunteered to be Sam or Frodo. Naturally, I had to be Frodo. No cooking ability whatsoever. We stayed there for a while - mostly because we had a much larger group for after lunch, and everyone wanted to play dress up for all of the role playing opportunities. I’ll just say one thing that I learned from that location: Elijah Woods is tiny. Like hobbit-sized. I was up in that tree and just barely fit, and I’m 5’5”. Very fitting role for him.
Pretty darn close
Being a hobbit
Yup
After the tree, it was time for some real action with the Shortcut to Mushrooms and hiding from the Nazgul scene. We climbed back up the hill and backtracked to that original sign that we had bypassed the first time. Again, I’m so glad that we had Ted with us to help us figure out the spot. Juding by the surrounding trees in the shot, we were able to get right to the spot where the four hobbits came rolling down the hill, only to land in a giant pile at the bottom. I believe they got stunt doubles to do the majority of the falling since it was literally the first day of shooting, and they didn’t want their lead actors injured so early on, but the last little bit of them going over the bank and hitting the group shows all of the main guys. Then you see what happened in the movie. We then set about creating it - whoever was Sam was on the bottom with leaves in their mouth, Frodo was off to the side with brush in his/her hair, Merry was holding a broken carror, and Pippin was on his/her stomach, looking at the giant land mind that they had narrowly avoided landing on. I got to be Merry, so I got the plastic carrot and did my best to arrange my face to mild discomfort.
The hill used and our attempt
A Shortcut to Mushrooms
Then we kept the same roles for the next bit - the hiding scene under the tree roots. The actual tree, it turns out, was a fake one placed on the side of the trail by Weta for the sake of a more dramatic angle. So that one wasn’t there anymore. I think that’s part of the reason why it’s so hard to find the exact location - everyone’s looking for that iconic tree as a marker, but it just doesn’t exist. The ditch where they crouched in, however, is very real, and we got to hang out down there. The Frodo stand-in had to be under the power of the Ring, the one playing Pippin was just sitting there, looking on, the wannabe Sam had to be in the process of stopping Frodo from putting it on, and Merry (that’s me) just got to sit off to the side and look worried about the approaching Black Rider. I think I had the easiest job, personally. Ted then had the difficult job of taking a photo from each of the eight cameras amongst us. It all worked out, though. I now have a great photo of the same shot used in the movie, with the same trees in the background and everything.
Just picture a giant fake tree above us
Like that
We stayed there for a while longer, and Ted explained a camera trick that Peter Jackson used for the wooded road when Frodo shouts, “Get off the road!” If you’ve seen the movie, the screen does this trippy thing where it zooms in and out at the same time to indicate something is coming. This was first used by Alfred Hitchcock in his movie Vertigo and then again in the movie Jaws, with the cop guy (I forget his name) sitting on the beach and seeing a shark attack. It’s great for adding drama and suspense. What they do is put the camera on a track at ground level and slowly pull it backwards from the shot while simultaneously zooming in. It results in a pretty cool thing called the Hitchcock Effect.
"Get Off the Road!"
There was only one thing left to see at Mount Victoria: the Flight to the Ford. This was the scene where all of the hobbits are running around in the dark, trying to escape the Nazgul and get to Buckleberry Ferry on the way to Bree. Ted led us back up to the place where we first entered the forest and pointed out some trees right next to the path. It looks way different in the middle of the day and from a different angle, but once you know where to stand, it’s pretty easy to picture Frodo and everybody hiding just behind those particular trees. Then he showed us what they’re looking up at. I think a couple of people might remember the particular shot used for the Black Rider up on top of a hill, looking down at the camera with some creepy backlighting behind it. That same shot was used for a number of promotional photos and made it on the cover for a specific edition of the Fellowship of the Ring book. I think Dad may have that version, actually. Anyway, it’s kind of a memorable shot, and what you don’t know is that the Nazgul is pretty much standing in the parking lot where we parked the van and looking down on the path used by bikers and pedestrians during the day. I wasn’t sure how we were going to recreate that shot without a horse, but Ted, as always, knew what he was doing. He asked for volunteers to create a silhouette, and I was glad to be excluded from that one, for once. It involved three people squashing up against each other and holding that pose long enough for a photo at the top of the hill. Surprisingly, it actually looks really convincing on camera. You could almost believe that it’s a horse and rider.
Our interpretation
Flight to the Ford
Then it was time to say goodbye to Mount Victoria. We had spent most of the afternoon up there, so we had to get over to Miramar on the other side of the bay to catch the Weta Cave before closing. I was pretty psyched about that because it meant scoping out actual props used for the movies and scoring some swag from the gift shop. While we were dricing out there, Ted kept us entertained with trivia and small talk. It’s pretty far out there, and most of the buildings in that part of the city look fairly nondescript. I guess the idea is to make the studios and workshops look as unassuming as possible so that no one really knows where they are or when filming is going on there. Apparently Andy Serkis, the guy who played Gollum, did some of his most famous scenes in this drafty little warehouse by the water, and neighbors from that area had no idea that any of it was going on. Ted said that there have been a few times when famous people have been walking along the street or have dropped in to check out the Weta Cave, and no one realizes that it’s them. Ian McKellan got recognized by someone on the tour a while back, and the poor guy got harassed by some crazy fanboy who wanted a job in the business, so Ted usually doesn’t point them out to people. I guess Elijah Wood was standing right next to a group in a goutee and beanie, and no one paid him any attention because they were all enthralled with the exhibits. I made Ted promise me that he would let me know if someone famous was in the building - I would be good, pinky swear. Unfortunately - or fortunately, however you look at it - that didn’t happen, and I wasn’t put in the difficult position of knowing and doing nothing.
The difference between the Weta Cave and Weta Workshop is that the Cave is the one open to the public. Due to the top-secret nature of many of their projects, they can’t really let people in to look around the actual studio and get in the way, but they realized that there was a huge amount of interest in what they do, so they created Weta Cave as the tourist version. They put up certain items on display and show short little videos as an acknowledgment to the fans. You can also buy a lot of the stuff in there, but most of it is ridiculously expensive, like hundreds of thousands of dollars for a bronze Gollum or something. Pretty much everything was way out of my price range except for a few little trinkets at the counter. I almost got $15 keyring, but I chickened out at the last minute - just too much money. I kind of regret not getting it now, though.
While we were there, I took lots of photos of Lurtz, the resident Uruk-hai, and Gollum. Surprisingly, a lot of the things in there weren’t necessarily Lord of the Rings-related. They also had stuff from their other projects, namely: District 9, The Chronicles of Narnia, King Kong, Tin Tin (I’m excited about that one - they’re working on it right now), and Avatar. I mostly stuck to the LOTR stuff, but it was neat to see the range of their other work. In the end, I left without buying anything, but I got to take lots of photos for bragging rights.
Inside the Weta Cave
One of the last stops was the studio itself. You go past Park Road Post Production (a very bland little building where they work most of their special effects magic) and end up in a quiet little neighborhood with a grocery store and lines of trees on the sidewalk. That’s where Stonestreet Studios is located. You could tell that everyone was really busy with getting the pre-production stuff together for The Hobbit because the block was packed with cars, and people kept disappearing in an out of the set. I would have loved to have gotten a glimpse inside, but, for obvious reasons, security was tight. No one in or out without a pass, apparently. We still got to watch and crane our necks for any sign of A-list actors. Most of the main cast aren’t really household names - Martin Freeman is playing Bilbo, and he’s mostly just done the British version of The Office - but some people like Orlando Bloom (Why??? His character’s not in the Hobbit!) and Ian McKellan are slotted to reprise their former roles. Also Cate Blanchett, Elijah Woods as a narrator, and a few others. I’m hoping for a shot of a younger Strider helping Gandalf track Gollum to Mordor, but we’ll just have to cross our fingers on that one.
There was a kind of exciting moment, however, as Ted was informing us about something. I was sort of zoned out because someone was leaving the set and approaching the van. That could mean anything. Why I didn’t automatically go for my camera is a question I have asked myself everyday since then. So this guy with long-ish hair came over and knocked on our window, and apparently Ted knew him because he opened the door and started chatting with him a bit. At first, I thought it was his brother, Chris, but then Ted called him “Dean,” and then I was lost. My first reaction was, “Wow, he definitely looks like someone from Middle Earth,” because he had this particular face that reminded me of old-world Europe (does that even make sense?) and he had this bearing to him that made him seem like a soldier. God, this is getting deep and stalker-ish now. Anyways, my first initial guess was that he might be a guard of Laketown or maybe a minor character from that area of The Hobbit. I guess I’ll just have to wait and see when the movie comes out. When I went home, I did some research on Google based on some comments Ted made and was able to find him - Dean Knowsley. Apparently, he hasn’t been in a whole lot yet except as a helicopter pilot in Avatar, but it was neat to meet him and know that he’s going to be in this awesome movie. Still no idea on who he plays - it wasn’t listed on imdb.com.
Long story short: he was a really nice, friendly guy. He obviously realized that we were dying for any details about the movie, so he indulged us with very cryptic responses. He couldn’t give anything away, of course, but he admitted to being very tired because he was too excited to sleep the night before - first day of preliminary shooting for him, I guess. So they’re getting closer. One guy was joking around, asking him if he could touch his shoulder since he might be famous someday, so he retaliated by poking the other guy with equal fascination. Later, as we were leaving the lot, our van was trying to get out of a very busy intersection, and his tiny little car just happened to pull out in front of us. Instead of continuing on, he stopped in the middle of the street and made a little “after you” gesture with this cheeky grin and held up traffic to let us go. Seemed like quite the character.
Stonestreet Studios and Park Road Post Production
And that was pretty much the last little bit of the tour. We briefly continued up the shore to Seatoun, where a lot of the cast had cottages of their own to have family over from overseas during filming. Ted pointed out a school way in the distance and informed us that that location had once been used for the set of Bree, which they only had a night to shoot in its entirety. It’s completely different now, so there was no point in going out there. We also stopped at a cool lookout point just around the bend, looking out into the harbor, for some last-minute photos. That’s where my camera finally died in its entirety, so it was actually good timing. Ted showed us some rocks by the shoreline and said that their texture was used as an inspiration for Shelob’s Lair in Return of the King. Looking at them, I could kind of see the resemblance.
Shelob's Lair Rocks
Then it was finally time to head home and say our goodbyes. I made sure to give Ted a big hug and express my gratitude because he was such a trooper for enduring the nerd attack all day. I’m sure he gets that a lot with his kind of business, but it was still very nice of him. He dropped me off at Base, and then it was just a short walk back to Wellywood. Sigh. Such an awesome day.
So the whole thing started just as we were pulling into Wellington on Stray. As usual, the driver sent a clipboard around for different activities and asked if anyone was interested in booking them right there. If you book through Stray, you usually get a little bit of a discount and don’t have to worry about figuring it out yourself. And, of course, the Lord of the Rings Tour was right up there with everything else. The one that I had heard about was more in the $40-60 range, but this one was…a bit more than that. I was torn on whether I should spend that much money so early on or not, but I finally talked myself into it, rightly deciding that I would live in agony for the rest of my days if I did not immediately sign up for this and then walk on clouds for the rest of the week.
That was on the day that we arrived, so I had plenty of time to get sufficiently psyched up for the whole thing. Not like I really needed it, but I was definitely pumped that Monday morning. I had to be downstairs and over by Base Wellington by 10:15, and, unfortunately I took too long to get ready and had to skip on breakfast. Oh well. Was too excited to eat anyways. Then the little van pulled up to the curb with the Wellington Movie Tours logo on the side and I was stoked. The guy running the entire operation was named “Ted” and was very, very cool. He definitely knew his stuff, but he was also super friendly and laidback - which made him seem less like a tour guide and more like a travel buddy. I guess his brother, Chris Guise, works at Weta Workshop and got his start there when they were just beginning to film the movies. That was before the company exploded with success and got ridiculously well-known, so he was there when it was still small and intimate. Now he works in design and has a higher up position at Weta than he did before. A combination of gossip from him and excessive re-watching of the extended edition interviews has left Ted with a pretty good idea of where everything was filmed.
I admit that I was a little worried about that at first. Since I’m pretty diehard myself, I already had a good idea where some of the scenes were filmed, and I was worried that he would just take us up to Mount Victoria and say, “So this was where they shot the Flight to the Ford. Walk around and take pictures for 20 minutes or so and then we’ll get back in the van.” Instead, he took us to the exact spot where the actors stood and provided photographic evidence in the form of movie stills and a laptop that he carried around with him. When we got to the right location, he would play the appropriate scene from the movie and then point out certain trees or rocks that lined up with the shot. So you knew for sure that it was legit.
Anyways, he showed up at Base and loaded me into the van with an older Canadian couple and a quiet Austrian guy. The Canadians were also doing the full-day, but the Austrian had to leave after lunch. Overall, it was a very tight-knit and friendly bunch. Ted started off by giving a little introduction speech and driving out towards the edge of the city. It was quickly established that I was the biggest nerd of the group even though I tried to hide it, and everyone else ranged from “I’ve seen them once or twice” to “I can tell you who Richard Taylor and Fran Walsh are,” so there was a general mix.
First we started off towards the Dry Creek Quarry on the outskirts of town, where they built the sets for Helm’s Deep and - later on - Minas Tirith. The area appealed to them because there was so much natural rock in the area that they didn’t have to worry about manufacturing a lot of the look. They basically just built the set straight up against the mountain and used the cliffs as extra decoration. Then, when they had finished three months of night shoots with Helm’s Deep, they tore down parts of the set and rearranged other pieces to build Minas Tirith in the same place. So the front gate of Helm’s Deep was altered a bit in shape and became the gateway to the second level of Minas Tirith. There’s really nothing there now to show that any of it existed, but it was cool to be there anyway. I guess locals saw it going on for months and knew all about what it was for, but since it was such an unknown thing, no one bothered to take pictures of it because no one had any idea of how popular the movie would be. Then, when the movies came out, everyone rushed over to take pictures, but it had all been torn down by then. Shame.
What's left of the location
Helm's Deep from the movie
Minas Tirith from the movie
It was raining off and on all day, and the first burst came just as we were leaving the quarry. The next stop was the gardens of Isengard, which was a bit of a drive, so Ted kept us entertained with more stories and film clips as the rain continued to come and go. The bonus about the weather was that it created these amazing fog drifts across the hills, so that added an extra dreamy quality to everything.
Eat your heart out, Misty Mountains
The majority of Isengard was shot in Harcourt Park, just a ways up into the Hutt Valley. It was basically Ian McKellan and Christopher Lee walking around in costume and then the people at Weta Workshop superimposing the Tower of Orthanc and some mountains into the background. There are some very distinctive trees, however, that you can recognize from the film. The first one is right there in the foreground when Gandalf first rides up to the tower on a horse and Saruman is coming down the stairs. They set up a blue screen just behind the tree and had Ian McKellan (or maybe a stunt rider, not sure) go up to a certain mark to dismount. Then the rest was added in later. You can also faintly see the path that they created out of the grass for the horse to ride along. It’s just slightly different in texture in color along this one strip, so you can literally walk all the way from the bridge to the tower and follow the same path to the tree. The bridge itself was flipped on the screen, so it’s actually a miniature shot backwards to fit in with the rest of the scene.
Harcourt Park with evidence of the foot path
Gandalf riding out to the tower from the bridge. See the tree?
Then there’s another grove of trees just a ways off from that where Gandalf and Saruman walked while discussing the Ring being found. If I remember the featurettes correctly, I think that was Christopher Lee’s first day of shooting as well. It was pretty much just a few little trees and bushes off to the side of the track with a park bench in the front. They covered the bench up with a fake shrub for filming, but the rest of it is pretty distinct as the area they were walking through. That’s also the scene where Saruman pretty much accuses Gandalf of being a stoner on the “Halfing’s Leaf,” so there’s that, too. The cutting down of all the trees was also filmed near this area, but a fake tree was used for the actual shot. It was a hinged tree that could be pulled down and put up again over and over as they filmed the scene, and it’s actually only one tree for all of the ensuing shots. They just changed the angle of the camera and interspersed it with dialogue to make it seem like they were tearing down a lot of different trees. Ah, the magic of film making.
The same little grove used for the movie
Saruman and Gandalf walking through Isengard
We stopped at Isengard for just a bit longer, and then we moved on to one of my favorite locations - the river where Aragorn washed ashore after the Warg fight. Now, that’s not exactly a huge, memorable scene as far as the trilogy goes, but I have personal reasons for being psyched about it because, well, it’s Aragorn. I’m allowed to fangirl a bit. The actual cliff that he fell off of is right across the water from Queenstown, and the river that he floats down is also in the South Island, but the beach that he washes up on is just on the edge of the Hutt River. They brought in some sand for Viggo to lie down on and roughed him up a bit in makeup, and then they had him lie there and look half-dead. Then the horse that played Brego did his thing of kneeling down next to him and helping him up. Naturally, I had to do the same thing. I couldn’t be in the same spot and not lie down for a quick photo. In the movie stills, you can see the same rock wall in the background when he’s lying there. Awesome.
Playing dead
Aragorn getting picked up by Brego. Notice the rock wall in the background.
Then we went just a ways upstream to see the bit where Faramir wades through the water to see Boromir’s funeral boat floating past him. I think this was more of a dream/vision thing in the movie, where Faramir just “feels” like his brother has died, but it’s kind of open to interpretation. We went over there as well, but no one was willing to go knee-deep into the river for a picture since it was way too cold for that. Also, you guys have probably noticed by now that New Zealand is full of tree ferns, and Peter Jackson really didn’t want there to be any in the movie. He didn’t want people to automatically identify the scenery with New Zealand, so every time you see tree ferns in the background, they were probably subtly edited out for the movie. In this case, a big fog machine was brought in to cast a misty effect over the water, and the fog actually worked to cover them in that shot. As a side note, we found a ton of obsidian-like rocks on the shoreline there, and I guess the designers of Isengard used that particular kind of rock as a reference for the texture of the tower. Huh. Ted also explained that his brother got to do little pick-up shots every once in a while as a perk of the job, and one of them was being the hands of Gollum on a floating log. I guess he spent the entire day submerged in this freezing river for a split second shot of something hiding out in the distance. He also provided the back shot of Wormtongue when he’s just about to stab Saruman in Return of the King. They do stuff like that with whoever happens to be around at the time so that the important, main character actors can go off and film complicated scenes and don’t have to come all the way out there for something really simple.
The spot where Faramir saw Boromir's funeral boat go by
The Isengard rock that I found
Next, we were off to lunch and Rivendell. There’s a place called Kaitoke Regional Park about 12km north of Upper Hutt that’s home to some nice rainforest walks and flowing rivers. The rain was picking up again at that point, so we took shelter in a picnic area just down the road. I was absolutely starving after not having anything to eat for breakfast, so I devoured my lunch of Subway sandwiches, cookies, and juice. Luckily, everyone else was full after only two portions and I was able to get away with taking some more without feeling too greedy. Hey, they were going to throw it out anyways! Okay, so we hung out there for a while and chatted a bit about all sorts of various subjects, and then we got back in the van to drive further into the forest.
Our lunch location
The actual location of Rivendell is signposted pretty well with all sorts of arrows pointing the way. I think it’s one of the best-known locations in New Zealand. Just as we were heading onto the path for “Rivendell,” Ted unloaded the van and pulled out what looked suspiciously like a bow and arrow. Hmm… What could that be for...? More on that later. While I was pondering that, we crossed a bridge and looked out over the river. It was harder to figure out specific markers used for the movie there, but walking around definitely reminded me of Rivendell in general. It was a good thing that we had Ted with us, because I would have had no idea where to look if I was there by myself. There’s a little sign in the wood with a plaque about the set, but there aren’t really any pictures to use as a reference. Then Ted busted out a humongous portfolio of movie stills and went BAM - evidence. See that little bush there? That’s that little bush over there. He’s kind of awesome like that. And the thing that we all got out of that particular visit was that Rivendell was frickin’ tiny as a set. You think of this huge, sprawling complex in the forest, but in actuality, it was just this gazebo and a few statues in the real world. A lot of the interior parts - like the famous Council of Elrond scene - were done on sets back in the studio, and the only a few bits were shot out in the elements. The best known one was the part where the Fellowship was getting ready to depart Rivendell in the Ring Goes South. In the film, you see Legolas prancing down the stairs to go get ready and then everyone gathered around their horses. I was able to find the tree used for the shot, just to Legolas’ right. He passed right next to it going down the artificial staircase. Then, as the Fellowship is leaving, Frodo mumbles to Gandalf, “One more time, Gandalf, is it left or right?” for comedic effect, but in reality, he had to go left because the right pathway goes straight into a river. There’s literally nothing there. So Frodo’s kind of an idiot.
The tree
The clearing...apparently
More pretty pics
*Cough* How did these get in here...?
Okay, but I was even more of an idiot for doing what happened next. Remember that bow and arrow? Yeah, turns out that it had a purpose after all. Some of you might remember a certain promotional shot of Legolas that was on calendars and posters all over the country when the movies first came out. It’s basically him looking all prissy and elegant in front of a tree with his bow at the ready, yet it was never used in the actual films. Well, we found that tree. There’s really no question about it - it’s definitely the same frickin’ tree. And, oh, would any of us like to pose under it with a bow and arrow? Why, sure, that would be just dandy, thanks! Come to think of it, would you also like a cloak to wrap around your shoulders and some fake elf ears to make it more authentic? Cool! Even better! Why, that’s splendid then. We’ll just throw a great big bloody Barbie wig on top of your head and get to it then! …Wait, come again? Yeah, there is absolutely no way to feel cool wearing that thing. You feel absolutely ridiculous, and I’m not especially good with posing for pictures anyway. So there I was, nerd extraordinaire, standing in full fake-elf get-up with five cameras pointed at me and getting commands like, “Now, just give us a little pout. Make it sexy!” Which I utterly failed at. I held the face for about half a second before bursting out laughing. So nearly every photo is unusable. Oh well. I looked slightly better than the Austrian guy, at least.
Fail
What it's supposed to look like
Then it was pretty much time to move on. We briefly crossed over a swing bridge on the other side of the river and explored around a bit, but then it was time to load back up in the van. As we were driving back into the city, Ted showed us some more interviews and scenes, including some old trailers from movies that Peter Jackson had made when he was first starting out. I gotta admit…they looked pretty terrible. I mean, really, really bad. I love Peter Jackson, but I don’t think I could force myself to watch them. I think that makes what he pulled off even more incredible, though. He was basically this guy that no one had heard of and only had these cheesy, gore-filled B-movies on his resume, and he somehow convinced the producers to let him film this epic trilogy. Says a lot about his character, I think.
Swing bridge stroll
As we got closer to the city, Ted pointed out Westpac Stadium on our left, the same rugby stadium where PJ and the guys got the crowd all pumped up on Black Speech. He needed a lot of orcs to be chanting and stamping and pounding their chests for the Battle of Helm’s Deep, so he went there and put some words up on the big screen for them to yell. I remember that from the special features, so it was kind of cool to see that same stadium and go, “Oh yeah, that’s the one that he was talking about.” Then, as we neared Parliament and the Railway Station, we stopped to drop off the Austrian guy and took quite a few more people for the second half of the day. Don’t worry - it was just as long but doesn’t require quite as much detail to cover.
Westpac Stadium
The main feature of the second half of the day was Mt. Victoria - also known as the place where they filmed A Shortcut to Mushrooms, “Get Off the Road,” the Flight to the Ford, and a few snippet scenes of Aragorn and King Theoden at Dunharrow. That was the one place in the Wellington area that I knew, 100%, involved filming, but I’m so glad I didn’t try to go on my own. For one thing, it’s really, really far uphill and a good fifteen minute drive outside of the city center. On the map, it looks right next to my hostel, but that doesn’t take into account how high up the road has to curve around the hills. It would’ve taken me all day to get up there. And, secondly, once you get over the initial feeling of, “Yeah, those trees look familiar,” and, “I could picture some Nazgul chasing some hobbits through here,” it’s really difficult to place exactly which trees were used for the shots. They all look the same after a while. Luckily, Ted was prepared. First, he explained that the trees were actually very, very old pine trees that had become warped and jagged from all the wind blowing through that area. Perfect for that kind of suspenseful feeling of being chased. Then he explained about how the place was used for the very first day of shooting. I remembered that little tidbit from an interview on the DVD, but it was nice to be reminded. Before they did anything else, they loaded up Elijah, Sean, Dom, and Billy into the back of car, drove them over to a park right outside Wellington, and filmed a lot of those preliminary scenes with the city just on the other side of the trees. So that was a cool, inexpensive way to do it.
Arriving at Mt. Victoria and Ted doing his thing
First, though, he led is just to the edge of this cliff so that we were looking out over a small clearing with a rock wall behind it. Apparently Viggo and Bernard Hill stood right at the edge of the clearing, where there’s a slight rise looking down the mountain, to look down at the army of Rohan that had amassed at Dunharrow. In actuality, they were just standing there in front of a blue screen, looking down at downtown Wellington. But okay, sure, armies of Rohan. That’s why they’re professional actors, I guess. That rock wall behind them can be briefly seen in the shot as well, just where some of the tents have been set up.
Looking down at Dunharrow...or Wellington
Next, it was time for some hobbit action. I thought he was going to take us to the Hobbits Hideaway area because there was a sign for it pointing up the hill, but he led us down a little deer path instead, in the completely opposite direction. Then, just through the leaves and branches, he pointed at this one particularly big pine tree with a low-hanging, V-shaped branch just at ground level. That was the scene where Frodo was hanging out and smoking his pipe in the tree while Samwise did all of the work of cooking dinner just below. Way to be Lord of the Manor, Frodo. Make your gardener do everything. Then they hear wood elves singing nearby and go to see them leaving for the Grey Havens. Just after that, they return to the same tree area and try to get some sleep. Sam complains about a tree root digging into his back, and Frodo starts mumbling about feather pillows and comfortable beds. Yep, those trees. So it was time for some more dress up and role playing. Ted whipped out a couple of long-stemmed pipes and a frying pan with some plastic sausages glued to it, and people volunteered to be Sam or Frodo. Naturally, I had to be Frodo. No cooking ability whatsoever. We stayed there for a while - mostly because we had a much larger group for after lunch, and everyone wanted to play dress up for all of the role playing opportunities. I’ll just say one thing that I learned from that location: Elijah Woods is tiny. Like hobbit-sized. I was up in that tree and just barely fit, and I’m 5’5”. Very fitting role for him.
Pretty darn close
Being a hobbit
Yup
After the tree, it was time for some real action with the Shortcut to Mushrooms and hiding from the Nazgul scene. We climbed back up the hill and backtracked to that original sign that we had bypassed the first time. Again, I’m so glad that we had Ted with us to help us figure out the spot. Juding by the surrounding trees in the shot, we were able to get right to the spot where the four hobbits came rolling down the hill, only to land in a giant pile at the bottom. I believe they got stunt doubles to do the majority of the falling since it was literally the first day of shooting, and they didn’t want their lead actors injured so early on, but the last little bit of them going over the bank and hitting the group shows all of the main guys. Then you see what happened in the movie. We then set about creating it - whoever was Sam was on the bottom with leaves in their mouth, Frodo was off to the side with brush in his/her hair, Merry was holding a broken carror, and Pippin was on his/her stomach, looking at the giant land mind that they had narrowly avoided landing on. I got to be Merry, so I got the plastic carrot and did my best to arrange my face to mild discomfort.
The hill used and our attempt
A Shortcut to Mushrooms
Then we kept the same roles for the next bit - the hiding scene under the tree roots. The actual tree, it turns out, was a fake one placed on the side of the trail by Weta for the sake of a more dramatic angle. So that one wasn’t there anymore. I think that’s part of the reason why it’s so hard to find the exact location - everyone’s looking for that iconic tree as a marker, but it just doesn’t exist. The ditch where they crouched in, however, is very real, and we got to hang out down there. The Frodo stand-in had to be under the power of the Ring, the one playing Pippin was just sitting there, looking on, the wannabe Sam had to be in the process of stopping Frodo from putting it on, and Merry (that’s me) just got to sit off to the side and look worried about the approaching Black Rider. I think I had the easiest job, personally. Ted then had the difficult job of taking a photo from each of the eight cameras amongst us. It all worked out, though. I now have a great photo of the same shot used in the movie, with the same trees in the background and everything.
Just picture a giant fake tree above us
Like that
We stayed there for a while longer, and Ted explained a camera trick that Peter Jackson used for the wooded road when Frodo shouts, “Get off the road!” If you’ve seen the movie, the screen does this trippy thing where it zooms in and out at the same time to indicate something is coming. This was first used by Alfred Hitchcock in his movie Vertigo and then again in the movie Jaws, with the cop guy (I forget his name) sitting on the beach and seeing a shark attack. It’s great for adding drama and suspense. What they do is put the camera on a track at ground level and slowly pull it backwards from the shot while simultaneously zooming in. It results in a pretty cool thing called the Hitchcock Effect.
"Get Off the Road!"
There was only one thing left to see at Mount Victoria: the Flight to the Ford. This was the scene where all of the hobbits are running around in the dark, trying to escape the Nazgul and get to Buckleberry Ferry on the way to Bree. Ted led us back up to the place where we first entered the forest and pointed out some trees right next to the path. It looks way different in the middle of the day and from a different angle, but once you know where to stand, it’s pretty easy to picture Frodo and everybody hiding just behind those particular trees. Then he showed us what they’re looking up at. I think a couple of people might remember the particular shot used for the Black Rider up on top of a hill, looking down at the camera with some creepy backlighting behind it. That same shot was used for a number of promotional photos and made it on the cover for a specific edition of the Fellowship of the Ring book. I think Dad may have that version, actually. Anyway, it’s kind of a memorable shot, and what you don’t know is that the Nazgul is pretty much standing in the parking lot where we parked the van and looking down on the path used by bikers and pedestrians during the day. I wasn’t sure how we were going to recreate that shot without a horse, but Ted, as always, knew what he was doing. He asked for volunteers to create a silhouette, and I was glad to be excluded from that one, for once. It involved three people squashing up against each other and holding that pose long enough for a photo at the top of the hill. Surprisingly, it actually looks really convincing on camera. You could almost believe that it’s a horse and rider.
Our interpretation
Flight to the Ford
Then it was time to say goodbye to Mount Victoria. We had spent most of the afternoon up there, so we had to get over to Miramar on the other side of the bay to catch the Weta Cave before closing. I was pretty psyched about that because it meant scoping out actual props used for the movies and scoring some swag from the gift shop. While we were dricing out there, Ted kept us entertained with trivia and small talk. It’s pretty far out there, and most of the buildings in that part of the city look fairly nondescript. I guess the idea is to make the studios and workshops look as unassuming as possible so that no one really knows where they are or when filming is going on there. Apparently Andy Serkis, the guy who played Gollum, did some of his most famous scenes in this drafty little warehouse by the water, and neighbors from that area had no idea that any of it was going on. Ted said that there have been a few times when famous people have been walking along the street or have dropped in to check out the Weta Cave, and no one realizes that it’s them. Ian McKellan got recognized by someone on the tour a while back, and the poor guy got harassed by some crazy fanboy who wanted a job in the business, so Ted usually doesn’t point them out to people. I guess Elijah Wood was standing right next to a group in a goutee and beanie, and no one paid him any attention because they were all enthralled with the exhibits. I made Ted promise me that he would let me know if someone famous was in the building - I would be good, pinky swear. Unfortunately - or fortunately, however you look at it - that didn’t happen, and I wasn’t put in the difficult position of knowing and doing nothing.
The difference between the Weta Cave and Weta Workshop is that the Cave is the one open to the public. Due to the top-secret nature of many of their projects, they can’t really let people in to look around the actual studio and get in the way, but they realized that there was a huge amount of interest in what they do, so they created Weta Cave as the tourist version. They put up certain items on display and show short little videos as an acknowledgment to the fans. You can also buy a lot of the stuff in there, but most of it is ridiculously expensive, like hundreds of thousands of dollars for a bronze Gollum or something. Pretty much everything was way out of my price range except for a few little trinkets at the counter. I almost got $15 keyring, but I chickened out at the last minute - just too much money. I kind of regret not getting it now, though.
While we were there, I took lots of photos of Lurtz, the resident Uruk-hai, and Gollum. Surprisingly, a lot of the things in there weren’t necessarily Lord of the Rings-related. They also had stuff from their other projects, namely: District 9, The Chronicles of Narnia, King Kong, Tin Tin (I’m excited about that one - they’re working on it right now), and Avatar. I mostly stuck to the LOTR stuff, but it was neat to see the range of their other work. In the end, I left without buying anything, but I got to take lots of photos for bragging rights.
Inside the Weta Cave
One of the last stops was the studio itself. You go past Park Road Post Production (a very bland little building where they work most of their special effects magic) and end up in a quiet little neighborhood with a grocery store and lines of trees on the sidewalk. That’s where Stonestreet Studios is located. You could tell that everyone was really busy with getting the pre-production stuff together for The Hobbit because the block was packed with cars, and people kept disappearing in an out of the set. I would have loved to have gotten a glimpse inside, but, for obvious reasons, security was tight. No one in or out without a pass, apparently. We still got to watch and crane our necks for any sign of A-list actors. Most of the main cast aren’t really household names - Martin Freeman is playing Bilbo, and he’s mostly just done the British version of The Office - but some people like Orlando Bloom (Why??? His character’s not in the Hobbit!) and Ian McKellan are slotted to reprise their former roles. Also Cate Blanchett, Elijah Woods as a narrator, and a few others. I’m hoping for a shot of a younger Strider helping Gandalf track Gollum to Mordor, but we’ll just have to cross our fingers on that one.
There was a kind of exciting moment, however, as Ted was informing us about something. I was sort of zoned out because someone was leaving the set and approaching the van. That could mean anything. Why I didn’t automatically go for my camera is a question I have asked myself everyday since then. So this guy with long-ish hair came over and knocked on our window, and apparently Ted knew him because he opened the door and started chatting with him a bit. At first, I thought it was his brother, Chris, but then Ted called him “Dean,” and then I was lost. My first reaction was, “Wow, he definitely looks like someone from Middle Earth,” because he had this particular face that reminded me of old-world Europe (does that even make sense?) and he had this bearing to him that made him seem like a soldier. God, this is getting deep and stalker-ish now. Anyways, my first initial guess was that he might be a guard of Laketown or maybe a minor character from that area of The Hobbit. I guess I’ll just have to wait and see when the movie comes out. When I went home, I did some research on Google based on some comments Ted made and was able to find him - Dean Knowsley. Apparently, he hasn’t been in a whole lot yet except as a helicopter pilot in Avatar, but it was neat to meet him and know that he’s going to be in this awesome movie. Still no idea on who he plays - it wasn’t listed on imdb.com.
Long story short: he was a really nice, friendly guy. He obviously realized that we were dying for any details about the movie, so he indulged us with very cryptic responses. He couldn’t give anything away, of course, but he admitted to being very tired because he was too excited to sleep the night before - first day of preliminary shooting for him, I guess. So they’re getting closer. One guy was joking around, asking him if he could touch his shoulder since he might be famous someday, so he retaliated by poking the other guy with equal fascination. Later, as we were leaving the lot, our van was trying to get out of a very busy intersection, and his tiny little car just happened to pull out in front of us. Instead of continuing on, he stopped in the middle of the street and made a little “after you” gesture with this cheeky grin and held up traffic to let us go. Seemed like quite the character.
Stonestreet Studios and Park Road Post Production
And that was pretty much the last little bit of the tour. We briefly continued up the shore to Seatoun, where a lot of the cast had cottages of their own to have family over from overseas during filming. Ted pointed out a school way in the distance and informed us that that location had once been used for the set of Bree, which they only had a night to shoot in its entirety. It’s completely different now, so there was no point in going out there. We also stopped at a cool lookout point just around the bend, looking out into the harbor, for some last-minute photos. That’s where my camera finally died in its entirety, so it was actually good timing. Ted showed us some rocks by the shoreline and said that their texture was used as an inspiration for Shelob’s Lair in Return of the King. Looking at them, I could kind of see the resemblance.
Shelob's Lair Rocks
Then it was finally time to head home and say our goodbyes. I made sure to give Ted a big hug and express my gratitude because he was such a trooper for enduring the nerd attack all day. I’m sure he gets that a lot with his kind of business, but it was still very nice of him. He dropped me off at Base, and then it was just a short walk back to Wellywood. Sigh. Such an awesome day.