Photo Link:
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Reasons 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 for me to visit New Zealand was to see LOTR filming sights. The trilogy is by some distance my favorite movie of all time, with the only other comparable movie being Goodfellas. Going in, I wasn’t too hot on the cities – I get bored after like a day in most cities where there isn’t historic sightseeing, unless it truly is a world class place like NYC or Shanghai. And I honestly was expecting the nature to be the epitome of “good but not great”, like how I found the best of the US that I have seen so far (Glacier, Yosemite, southwest). Which is still worth seeing! But not worth flying alllll the way out here for. So yea, the only reason I schlepped out here was for Lord of the Rings. Part of this is definitely because I have traveled a ton – it takes a lot to WOW me, especially given the standout natural beauty I have seen in places like Ladakh and Spiti, Tajikistan, Bolivia, and to a lesser degree places like Kyrgyzstan, Argentina, Indian Kashmir, Jordan, and Namibia.
Landed in Auckland in the evening after a 12 hour journey from KL – 8 hours to Sydney, 1 hour layover, 3 (!!!) hours to Auckland. Spent the first day just sort of wandering around Auckland. Nice but thoroughly forgettable city. Sort of reminded me of what I imagine a tier B west coast city in the US to be like. Like a Portland or Seattle, or maybe even a Vancouver. Hints of SF with the hilly terrain, the docks, and the plethora of excellent and cheap east Asian cuisine due to the immigrant population here. But really nothing to do at all besides amble around for a day or so.
The next day was the absolute highlight of North Island. The Hobbiton film set! Went with a tour company (strong similarities to my Highlands tour in Scotland and especially Iceland in the way the operations work…various hostel pickups, same shitty jokes by the driver, and so on), as it was a few hours south of Auckland. The drive was just rolling green hills – not quite as pretty as countryside England, but nice enough. But Hobbiton…just so so cool to visit the film set of the Shire. It was built on a private farm, and kept up as a tourist attraction (as opposed to all other LOTR sets which were destroyed after filming). But just incredible to see all the sets and recognize locations from the film. Honestly gave strooooong England vibes, especially the Cotswolds. Hobbiton was basically a fantasy version of Stow-on-the-Wold, the “classic” English town that I saw in the Cotswolds. Thatched roofs, stone bridges, a water mill, the general rustic feel – just so well done, and honestly it *felt* historic, which I think is a big part of the aesthetic appeal of Hobbiton. Even if you are not a LOTR fan, I think you could appreciate the rustic beauty of the place. And if you are a fan…well, this is like visiting Mecca. I was also surprised at how small the set was. The films do a great job of making the area seem bigger than it was, but you could comfortably walk the whole thing in 15 minutes if you wanted to. And sadly (but obviously), there were no interiors to the Hobbit holes. All of that was obviously done in a set, but they did the interiors *enough* so you could see things through windows and cracked open doors. In a way it reminded me of the brilliant work done by the team behind The Folly for their Burning Man art piece back in 2019. Really the only unsurprising negative here were the massive crowds, so it was harder than it should have been to appreciate the rustic beauty of the place with hordes of umbrella weilding tourists (light drizzle that day) all following the same guided path.
After Hobbiton (again, cannot stress how cool this place was…so much better than the Hobbitenango knockoff I saw in Guatemala), we went to the Waitomo Caves to see glowworms. No photos were allowed because the worms would apparently stop glowing if exposed to outside light (or sound for that matter). This was honestly probably the most alien thing I have ever done in my life. Felt like it was straight out of The Expanse or some outer space Sci-Fi thing, with the magical glowing blue lights on the cave walls as you slowly paddled down a river in the otherwise pitch black. Just crazy trippy stuff. However, this boat ride was quite literally all of three minutes, so it ultimately felt like the world’s biggest tease. I do wonder if other parts were accessible for longer trips, or roped off, or if that was it for the glow worms. Definitely glad this was a part of the tour package but it just left me wanting so much more.
My final night in Auckland was actually wonderful. After getting back, I went near the hostel to this delicious cookie stall that I had already frequented multiple times to get a white chocolate macadamia cookie (these things are so freakin good), but they were sold out. A local girl who bought last batch actually offered me one of them for free, and we wound up hanging out all night, just walking around the dock area – didn’t even go to a bar or restaurant or anything. It was honestly such a Burning Man interaction – we knew we would never see each other again, but just hung out and had super cool conversations for like hours on end. I think that night alone made me like Auckland more than it deserves.
The following day I took a 5 hour train down south (Auckland is almost at the top of North Island, and New Zealand basically has two primary islands, North and South Islands) to Tongariro National Park. There is a famous day hike here called the Tongariro Crossing, but more importantly, the national park was the setting for Mordor in LOTR. And Mt. Ngauruhoe, which features prominently in the hike, was actually used as Mount Doom in the movies! However, summitting the mountain is now frowned upon, as it is a sacred spot for the Maori, the indigenous population. This is a recent frowning upon of…the current government in NZ has apparently made a concerted effort to be more inclusive to the Maori, and quite literally every single landmark/street/etc. has a Maori name and an English name publicized. Kind of cool to see a country embrace their indigenous culture *cough USA*. That said, I have no idea if the NZ gov is actually doing anything of note for the Maori, as they are economically disadvantaged, or if this is all performative actions to keep rich white liberals happy. But yea. The train ride in was interesting enough. More of what I saw on the drive the previous day…tons of rolling green hills. Honestly nowhere near as pretty as England, but I think that is because of the “maintained” greenery that is the effect of human intervention in England, while things are a bit more raw here. But not totally raw and beautiful as the lushness of places like Uganda or Sri Lanka. But to be fair, the main natural beauty of New Zealand is its’ mountains on South Island, not these rolling green hills. One other sort-of surprise was the general poverty levels…like it wasn’t proper poverty, but it does seem like outside of Auckland, the country isn’t exactly super well off. Very much “flyover country” vibes here.
The next day, the national park closed the Tongariro Crossing route for the day due to bad weather. Bad might have been an understatement…winds went up to 70 kmph, there was up to 5mm rain per hour (this is a TORRENTIAL downpour), and there was effectively zero visibility due to the fog. But I was here, and I figured that shit weather would make Mordor more realistic, so I went for it. Instead of Tongariro, I did another hike called Tama Lakes. Walk might be a more appropriate word here…the hike was about 17km roundtrip and had 350m of elevation, but it was so easy that even the most out of shape and fat person could have done it. Honestly it would have been a boring hike except for the fact that: 1) It was in Mordor and 2) The absolutely awful weather at least made things exciting. The last 30 mins or so of the ascent was cool as you are walking up an exposed ridge with the wind absolutely battering you, and rain hitting you at a 100% horizontal angle. It was cool to somewhat struggle up the rocky screes of Mordor much like Frodo and Samwise did. And it honestly felt like Mordor, with the godawful conditions and the lack of life anywhere on this scree. There were a few lakes and greenery here that looked pretty cool once the fog cleared out (Peter Jackson obviously CGI’d these out of the movies), but overall I would say the hike was very eh and only worth it if you are an LOTR nerd AND Tongariro Crossing is closed.
Right before this hike, I did a quick walk to these small waterfalls which was the scene where Gollum sings and eats a fish after him, Frodo, and Sam are captured by Faramir’s rangers. Again, a mediocre sight but only worth it for LOTR fans.
Due to the fog, I was not able to actually see Mt. Ngauruhoe aka Mount Doom, but the next morning, the weather was ironically absolutely perfect and would have been a great day for the Tongariro Crossing. I already had my train booked to Wellington, but at least I got to see Mount Doom which was pretty cool…it’s a very picturesque, conical mountain. The trainride to Wellington was more of the same of the first train I took – tons of rolling green hills, definitely a bit Shire-like. As we got closer to Wellington it started to resemble Cape Town to me, with dramatic cliffside beaches and nice properties overlooking them.
Wellington as a whole was a pleasant surprise. The entire area reminded me of the Western Cape area and Cape Town, but less picturesque – there’s no dramatic Table Mountain/Lion’s Head/Devil’s Peak towering over the city. A little bit like Ushuaia (southern tip of Argentina), but not quite as New-England-y as Ushuaia was. Just major Bay Area/SoCal/Cape Town vibes, tons of cheap cafes and restaurants and bars, and just a pleasant and fun city to amble around. My first full day in Wellington I did the Weta Workshop tour. It was pretty much identical to the really cool movie prop museum that I went to in Lyon in France, except this was significantly smaller, and of course largely focused on LOTR. It was awesome to see tons of actual props from the films – from Gimli and Theoden’s helmets, to the various swords and bows and axes used, to hobbit feet, to various orc paraphenlia, to generic solider armour and shields for each faction, and so on. I would argue that the tour is worth it for any movie fan as it is a good behind the scenes of how things are done, but if you’re not an LOTR fan then the Lyon museum blows this one out of the water…like most of the North Island, the main draw is LOTR. Then hiked up Mount Victoria, where there were a few scenes filmed when the hobbits leave the Shire, and they were honestly surprisingly recognizeable (more than I expected, at least).
That evening, I met up with friends of my uncle and aunt in Chennai. They had moved over to NZ in the late 90s and are now Kiwi citizens, and work for the government (as does seemingly everyone in Wellington). Went for a nice quick and easy hike just outside Wellington (sort of like what the Western Cape is to Cape Town in South Africa), then went to this really cool bar in downtown Wellington that had a private lawn seating area just outside, and then went to this really good restaurant called Floraditas where I had a pretty good grilled catch of the day fish dinner. Was very nice of them to show me around (Indian hospitality is always something else), and got to see some cool spots that I otherwise would not have.
The next day, I had another LOTR tour. First we went nearby Wellington to the Kaitoke Regional Forest, which was the site of the Rivendell set. Our guide showed us photos of the before and after of exact spots and it’s crazy how unrecognizeable it is. Now it’s all just a random forest with greenery everywhere. One cool thing was that Weta Workshop returned <10 years ago and built a new, elven-style arch in the exact location where the Rivendell arch was located, with permission from the local authorities. This is a different arch than what was in the movie (for copyright reasons), but still, it was built by Weta, and was clearly Elven, so for me it was basically Rivendell. It was super well done, and had that sort of abandoned-in-the-jungle vibe that you get with actual ruins like in Cambodia, Guatemala, and Chernobyl, so for me this was a particular highlight of the North Island.
After this we drove further east to the Putangirua Pinnacles, which was the location for the path of the dead in the third movie. Even outside of the LOTR stuff this was a legit cool place. Very unique geological area, with tall pointy pinnacles all around you. There was a nice little exercise hike to get to a viewpoint where you see all the pinnacles from a distance and above, and then you could hike in the actual valley and follow the paths that Aragorn, Legoas, and Gimli took. Unfortunately a lot has changed in the past 20 years and it’s not lowkey inacessible – you would basically be sliding on your ass down the gravel on the way down if you walked all the way up these paths. But it was still awesome to walk here and you could really get an eerie feel like in the movies. And again, objectively just a very unique area – it was like a grey version of Bryce Canyon in the US, and also reminded me a little of what I have seen in Google of the Tsingy in Madagascar (if/when I go in late March-early April here, I won’t be seeing this as it is only open during the summer). After this we drove over to some forgettable lighthouse and saw some seals on a beach, but I didn’t really care for those, and then we got back to Wellington in the evening.
On my final day, the main thing I did was visit New Zealand’s national museum, Te Papa. It is objectively a very well done museum, but I didn’t particularly care for it. Not to be insensitive, but I guess I am just not that into Pacific Islander/Maori history…I wonder if this is how other regular/non-history-nerd people feel when they visit museums in Europe. Overall, Wellington is such a nice city to hang out in socially, and it’s a great city to just randomly walk around, especially the harbor area. North Island as a whole was a cool area, but I don’t think it’s worth it at all if you aren’t an LOTR fan…in that case I would go straight to South Island. One random aside – it’s kind of crazy how much movie sightseeing I have done. The other big one was going to Jordan primarily for Petra because of Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade (Jordan of course was an amazing, amazing country), but even seeing the parking lot where the Anchorman fight scene happened. Funnily enough, these two are probably #s 3 and 4 for me after LOTR and Goodfellas.
Next up is a full day ferry ride across to South Island followed by a bus to Christchurch, the largest city on South Island. I’ll be spending about two weeks on South Island before flying over to Fiji for New Year’s.