Discover New Zealand, Home of Middle Earth
Thursday, Day 4. We are negotiating the Akatarawa Road, which Elane Barnden at the Upper Hutt Information Centre told me is "a sealed road, narrow and fairly winding but if you take it easy it is fine." She was absolutely right! As a former Vietnam road builder in similar terrain, I can appreciate the phenomenal amount of work it took to carve this marvelous road out of the Tararua Mountain range. The fact that huge, double trailer trucks can negotiate this road is a tribute to both the truckers and the road builders!
Rivendell ("Imladris" in the language of the elves) was the location of "The Last Homely House" in "The Hobbit," and was the last refuge of the Elves in Middle Earth, where Bilbo "lived happily ever after to the end of his days" before he left for the Blessed Realm on his one hundred and thirty-first birthday. In the film, it consisted of an ornate model supplemented with partial sets including the bedroom where Frodo recovered from his wound and the adjacent balcony. All that is left in Kaitoke Regional Park is a series of signs and the foliage where the sets were. I had expected to find some of the sets still standing, but they are all gone, along with the elves (and Bilbo).
Even without the Rivendell set, Kaitoke Regional Park is an interesting place to visit. The lush foliage was perhaps the inspiration for its choice as the Rivendell site, a place appropriate to elves, the lovers of all living things. It is a nice picnic spot, and we met a number of people there (even in November!) who weren't there for hobbitish reasons like we were.

I was intrigued by the ingenious suspension bridge, and just had to cross it.  Stefanie found it a little too wobbly for her taste. She crossed it, though. Then she had to get back! (Heh, heh, heh!)
Alongside Rivendell site is a little stream which served not only as the river past Rivendell ("Loudwater" or "Bruinen" in elves' language") but also the Ford of Isen in Rohan. Looked at from two different directions from the bridge across it, it almost looks like two different rivers.  We found all along our trip that, unless you were in the exact spot from which the film was taken, the scenery looked much different.
Harcourt Park served as the gardens of Isengard. Here Gandalf discussed the discovery of the Ring with Saruman before he discovered Saruman's treachery. There is a path through the middle of the park that has slightly more clover on it than the surrounding lawn. This was a gravel path in the film where Gandalf rode his horse. This is also where the orcs cut down all the trees to stoke the fires for their weapons forges. There were two hinged trees here, but all that's left is a spot of mud where the larger one was.
The Hutt river between the Moonshine Bridge and Poets Park became the Anduin River in the Naith where the Fellowship set out from Lothlorien. It reminded me also of the entrance to Moria, where the Fellowship was menaced by the Watcher in the Water, but I don't know if this was the actual site used. I got confused driving along the river here because of the lack of lane markings and drove on the right (wrong side) for a while until I noticed a car coming the other way.
We took a detour into the Wellington suburbs to Mt. Victoria to see the place where the hobbits hid from the first Black Rider they encountered. Only a few of our pictures turned out because it was considerably darker than we thought it was, and my disposable cameras aren't good in the dark. The left location is where Frodo yelled "Get off the road!" On the right is near where the hobbits hid under the tree roots (which have been removed). I fell down the bank where the hobbits did (and was glad I didn't break anything) but I didn't find any mushrooms.
Stefanie was smart enough to take a rest while I was climbing around trying to find the Black Rider path. The view from Mt. Victoria Overview is really spectacular. Getting up there was a little difficult, however, since the road follows a trail laid out by people (or perhaps by sheep) who weren't thinking about negotiation by vehicles the width of camper vans. We didn't hit anybody, but I had to stop and put back a rubbish receptacle that I knocked over on the way up.
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