Mt. Victoria

The next morning we had the marvelous luxury of a 9 am start. Many mornings we had to pack all our luggage, show up at breakfast by 7:30, and load the bus by 8 am. Mornings like today, when we weren’t traveling, were so nice.

I remember, while watching the Appendices from the Lord of the Rings extended edition movies, Peter Jackson expressing his delight at finding a great filming location right near his home in Wellington. This spot is Mt. Victoria, and it was where our bus headed this morning. Julie said she has learned to hit this place first thing in the morning, to avoid the crowds of tourists.

The trails on Mt. Victoria showed us exactly where to find the movie film locations. The beautiful (and free to visit) city park that is easily accessible in New Zealand’s capital city explains why it is visited by so many tourists. There are Lord of the Rings fans around the world, and many of them in New Zealand itself, and many of them want to do just what we were doing: visiting as many film locations as we could find.

The slope and woods above were instantly recognisable as the hill the Hobbits tumbled down as they were escaping an angry Farmer Maggot after having stolen some of his vegetables. When the Hobbits land in a heap at the bottom of the hill, they spot mushrooms and hurry to collect some. The chapter in Tolkien’s book is called Shortcut to Mushrooms, so named because the Hobbits come face to face with Farmer Maggot, who is famous for growing prized mushrooms, and he freely gives some of them to the travelers. I suppose a frenzied escape is more interesting in a movie.

On the edge of the road is another famous movie scene. As the Hobbits are collecting their wits and brushing off their clothes from the tumble, and picking mushrooms, Frodo gets the sense of approaching danger. “Get off the road!” he yells to them, and all four Hobbits leap off the road and hide beneath the root of a tree.

On this occasion, Pedro and I were at the back, and had not really even seen the famous “Get Off the Road” spot when it was already time for reenactments. We knew we would be here a long time as all the members of the tour group took their turns pretending to be in the scene. We wandered around a little and looked at the trail.

Something I noticed with pleasure is that New Zealanders are proud of their place in the movie-making world, and that many are specifically proud of their connection to Tolkien’s Middle Earth. We would find evidence throughout the country, such as plaques, statues, figurines in cases, and all kinds of quiet honors like these park benches, adorned with movie quotes.

On this occasion, Pedro was interested in participating in the reenactment because he wanted to try on some of the props. If I didn’t mention it earlier, Pedro’s affinities lean more toward the dark characters. He likes the orcs. His favourite character is one with a big role in Rings of Power, that of the elf Adar, Father of Orcs. The piece of kit that he wanted to get his hands on were the gauntlets worn by the Ringwraith. Soon I was over the edge of the hill, getting photos of him in action. In my opinion the scene was rendered ridiculous with the addition of the horse head. (I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I just think the whole reenactment thing is over-the-top silly. But we did try to play along and keep a good spirit about it.)

The group finished reenacting the scene, then tromped over the ledge and down the hill for the next movie site, and Pedro and I got to take a look at the Get Off The Road site for the first time with no people in it.

After another hour of reenacting the scene down at the big tree over the hill, people started to clear out of there and Pedro and I made our way down to take a look at the tree where Frodo and Sam had shared a pipe at the beginning of their journey.

At long last, everyone felt as though they had recreated the scenes to their hearts’ content and we were able to walk on. Since we were already at Mt. Victoria, the bus driver took us to the top, for a great 360 degree view of the city. Click the link below to see a video that I took.

https://youtube.com/shorts/A14NrVHMJ5I

Then it was time for lunch, and we went on to the beautifully restored Roxy Theatre, before heading to Weta Workshop. But I’ll talk about that in my next post.