ExplorE - Wellington

©2012 Warner Bros. Ent.
TM Saul Zaentz Co.
WellingtonNZ.com/FilmMap
At the date of printing this map Positively Wellington Tourism (PWT) has to the best of its
knowledge been supplied with accurate and up-to-date information. PWT shall not be held
responsible for any errors or omissions printed, changes or misinformation supplied. All rights
reserved. No part of this guide may be reproduced without the prior permission of PWT.
www.MiddleofMiddle-earth.com
Professional tour operators run half and full day tours of film locations throughout
the city and Wellington region, giving you the full script and behind-the-scenes
stories about Wellington’s world class screen industry. Find out more and book your
tour at the Wellington i-SITE Visitor Centre or WellingtonNZ.com/FilmTours.
For more locations, information, images and videos, visit
WELLINGTON FILM TOURS
Formerly Chocolate Fish Café, this quirky and colourful
beachfront café was popular with cast during the filming of The
Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit.
497 Karaka Bay Rd
This eatery committed to local products fuels many of the
hundreds of animators and artisans who work on major films in
production in Miramar.
133 Darlington Rd
30 Havana
A favourite of The Hobbit’s James Nesbitt, Café Polo is also
popular with Wellington foodies.
When he moved from working with Pixar in Los Angeles to Weta
Digital in Wellington, Lucas Putnam missed Mexican cuisine
so much that he and his partner decided to set up this hip and
colourful eatery in the heart of Miramar.
19 Park Rd
29 Motel
4 Forresters Lane
Quite probably New Zealand’s most awarded bar and restaurant,
Matterhorn was a favourite of The Lord of the Rings and The
Hobbit stars during filming.
16 Taranaki St
106 Cuba St
27 The Apartment Bar
33 Queens Wharf
e
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25 Allen Street
CAFES & RESTAURANTS BARS
i
Hutt Valley
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This New York loft-style lounge bar has hosted a number of film
industry functions, including the after wrap party for The Hobbit
movies. Apartment is owned by Jamie Wilson of Chameleon Event
Management, who oversaw the world premiere of The Lord of the
Rings: The Return of the King, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
and was head of department for weaponry on The Hobbit movies.
This popular waterfront restaurant and bar hosted the postpremiere party for The Lovely Bones in 2009.
21 Foxglove
32a-34 Wigan St
28 Matterhorn
The Lord of the Rings star Viggo Mortensen (Aragorn) was a big
fan of this restaurant known for its big serves and late hours.
22 The Green Parrot
G Hutt River
This tucked-away cocktail bar was famously reported to have
turned away Liv Tyler during filming of The Lord of the Rings. It’s
also said to have been a favourite of King Kong star Adrien Brody.
82-84 Rotheram Tce
23 La Boca Loca
D DRY CREEK QUARRY
A Kapiti island
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A number of scenic sites throughout the Wellington
region were used as locations for The Lord of the Rings
trilogy and Sir Peter Jackson’s early films. For details
and maps to sites used for filming Rivendell, Helms
Deep, Minas Tirith, Isengard, the River Anduin and
more, visit WellingtonNZ.com/FilmMap.
A
Kapiti
WELLINGTON REGION LOCATIONS
12 Weta Cave
16Lyall Bay
Cuba Mall
Cnr Weka St & Camperdown Rd
One of Wellington’s quirkiest and most well known
landmarks, the Bucket Fountain is a popular meeting
place on the Cuba Street pedestrian mall. The fountain
experienced its 15 minutes of international fame after
The Lord of the Rings star Elijah Wood admitted relieving
himself in it on a night out with his co-stars.
The Weta Cave is the shop front of the multiple Oscar-winning
Weta Workshop. Born as RT Effects in the back room of Sir
Richard Taylor and Tania Rodger’s Wellington flat in 1987,
the pair later formed Weta Workshop with friends Sir Peter
Jackson and Jamie Selkirk in 1993 for the filming of Heavenly
Creatures. Visitors to the Weta Cave can view a selection of
props, buy collectibles and watch an exclusive behind-thescenes film about the Workshop, which was propelled to fame
after producing sets, costumes, armour, weapons and creatures
for The Lord of the Rings. Weta Digital is located close by.
Mount Victoria Lookout
is one of the city’s most
popular visitor sites, offering
panoramic views across the
city. The very first footage for
The Lord of the Rings
trilogy was filmed here on 11 October 1999, with areas
of the capital city’s green belt also used for the famous
‘Get off the road’ and ‘Escape from the Nazgûl’ scenes.
9Parliament Buildings
2Embassy Theatre
5Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa
10 Kent Terrace
55 Cable St
This historic theatre built in 1926 was restored to host The
Lord of the Rings premieres, including the world premiere
of The Return of the King in December 2003. At over 421
metres, The Return of the King boasted the world’s longest
red carpet ever at the time. The host of the world premiere
of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey has seats in the name
of a number of The Lord of the Rings stars, including Sir Ian
McKellen and Elijah Wood. The Embassy has also hosted
New Zealand premieres for Sir Peter Jackson’s King Kong in
2005 and The Lovely Bones in 2009.
The film community make their mark on Wellington not
just through movies, but also through their art. Izzat Design
– whose artists created props for films such as Avatar, The
Lord of the Rings and King Kong – have contributed to a
range of exhibitions at Te Papa, recreating seven extinct
birds of New Zealand for the ‘Blood, Earth, Fire’ exhibition
and the scarily lifelike scene of a typical New Zealand
family during WWII in the ‘Slice of Heaven’ exhibition.
popular with international stars,
& check out exhibits & sculpture
crafted by artisans
3Tripod Sculpture
who have worked on some of the
Academy® Award-winning Weta Workshop
was commissioned by Wellington City
Council to create this sculpture celebrating
Wellington’s film and television industry
in 2005. Comprising a film camera and
tripod that appear to be composed from
a collection of recycled goods, Tripod
pays tribute to the New Zealand screen industry’s Kiwi cando attitude and ability to create with whatever is at hand.
WellingtonNZ.com/FilmMap
24 Café Polo
H Kaitoke Regional park
E Putangirua pinnacles, wairarapa
B Pukerua bay
8Bucket Fountain
visit bars and restaurants
world’s biggest movies.
25 The Larder
This popular nightspot just off Cuba Street was a favourite of
The Hobbit star James Nesbitt.
I martinborough hotel, the square, martinborough
F Harcourt Park, Upper Hutt
C Seaview, lower hutt
film locations,
26 Scorch-o-rama
Explore
1Mount Victoria
6 Frank Kitts Lagoon
Wellington Waterfront
Downtown Wellington was used in the filming of the Indian
remake of The Italian Job called Players, in 2011. India’s top
Bollywood film makers used the area around Frank Kitts
Lagoon for the legendary car chase scenes. Filming also
took place in the popular Featherston St shopping precinct
and on the City to Sea Bridge that connects Civic Square to
the waterfront.
Cnr Courtenay Place and Cambridge Terrace
4 Film Archive
84 Taranaki St
The home of New Zealand’s moving image history houses
over 150,000 titles spanning feature films, documentaries,
short films, home movies, newsreels, TV programmes and
advertisements. The Film Archive has a cafe, gallery, cinema
and media library boasting thousands of Kiwi classics.
7St James Theatre
77-87 Courtenay Place
Like all the grand theatrical venues, St James Theatre –
built in 1912 - has its ghost stories. While a former Russian
dancer called Yuri is the most regularly sighted, a boys’
choir and wailing woman have also made occasional
appearances. When promoting his 2010 film The Lovely
Bones, director Sir Peter Jackson revealed he had seen the
wailing woman at the foot of his bed in his old apartment
across from the theatre about 20 years ago.
Cnr Lambton Quay & Molesworth St
Celebrations for the 2003 world premiere of The Lord of
the Rings: The Return of the King kicked off with an official
reception for the cast and crew at New Zealand’s Parliament.
A 5km parade then took the stars to the premiere at
Embassy Theatre, at the top of Courtenay Place. Free tours
operate through Parliament Buildings daily, except major
public holidays.
13Roxy Cinema
5 Park Rd
This beautiful art deco cinema was brought back to life by a
collective of Wellington’s Oscar-winning moviemakers and
hospitality stars, including Weta Workshop’s Sir Richard Taylor
and Tania Rodger, Jamie & Ann Selkirk, Valentina Dias and
Jonny McKenzie. As well as two state-of-the-art theatres, Roxy
Cinema is home to CoCo restaurant and bar. A number of
the cinema’s fittings and hero artworks were created by Weta
Workshop artists.
10 Westpac Stadium
Waterloo Quay
To help create the sound of 10,000 chanting Uruk-hai orcs
during the Battle of Helm’s Deep for The Lord of the Rings:
The Two Towers, director Sir Peter Jackson recorded 30,000
cricket fans chanting in the Black Speech during the lunch
break of a New Zealand Cricket Team match at the popular
Westpac Stadium in 2002.
11 Wellington Zoo
200 Daniell St
The ‘best little zoo in the world’ was used as a location for
Sir Peter Jackson’s 1992 comedy horror film, Braindead. It
was also used for filming for the popular WotWots series,
an animated children’s television show produced by
Academy® Award-winning Weta Workshop.
17Red Rocks
Cnr Southampton Road & Stone Street
Co-owned by the Oscar-winning trio of Sir Peter
Jackson, Sir Richard Taylor and Jamie Selkirk, Stone
Street Studios’ facilities were extensively used by
New Line Cinema, Universal Pictures and Warner Brothers for
the production of The Lord of the Rings, King Kong and The
Hobbit movies. Scenes for Avatar were also filmed here.
141 Park Road, Miramar
Developed by Sir Peter Jackson for filmmakers, Park Road Post
Production prides itself on the highest standard of technical
infrastructure. The facility’s select filmography includes
Jackson’s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, The Lovely
Bones and The Lord of the Rings trilogy; Steven Spielberg’s The
Adventures of Tintin; and popular New Zealand films Boy and
Two Little Boys. The state-of-the-art facility was built in 2005,
with its architecture inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright and the
arts and crafts movement of the 1860’s – 1900’s.
Scenes for most of Sir Peter Jackson’s movies have been
filmed in Shelly Bay, including pick-ups for The Lord of the
Rings trilogy. A large-scale version of King Kong’s Skull Island
was built near the Massey Memorial on Mount Crawford for
Jackson’s 2005 version of the film.
19Cook Strait
15Park Road Post PRODUCTION
This popular walking spot is where Frodo, Sam and Gollum
reached the Black Gate in The Lord of the Rings. The full
Red Rocks Coastal Walk takes 2-3 hours, but can also be
completed in parts. New Zealand fur seals can be seen in the
area in winter, from May-August.
18Shelly Bay
14Stone Street Studios
A cliff face by this popular
surf beach along Wellington’s
rugged south coast was used for Dunharrow in The Lord of
the Rings trilogy. Billy Boyd (Pippin) and Viggo Mortensen
(Aragorn) learned to surf here, with Mortensen famously
having to be shot as a right-to-left profile for some scenes
after a run in with his surfboard. Filming for King Kong’s
Skull Island also took place here. Lyall Bay’s Maranui Café
is one of Wellington’s most popular eateries, and was a
favourite with cast and crew from The Hobbit movies.
As well as Kapiti Island, ocean-going scenes for King
Kong were shot on the Cook Strait. Regular ferry services
take passengers and vehicles across the Strait between
Wellington and Picton; the scenic journey also runs through
the stunning Marlborough Sounds.
20Seatoun
The Prancing Pony and village of Bree were built around
army barracks at Fort Dorset in Seatoun for The Lord of the
Rings. The old army base isn’t open to the public and no
sets remain. Seatoun has been home to a number of the
international stars of Sir Peter Jackson’s films, including Sir
Ian McKellen and Orlando Bloom.
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WellingtonNZ.com/FilmMap
For more locations, information, images and trailers, visit
[
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WELLINGTON FILM MAP
PLACES TO SEE
1Mount Victoria
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GL
2Embassy Theatre
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3Tripod Sculpture
4 Film Archive
5Museum of New Zealand
Te Papa Tongarewa
6 Frank Kitts Lagoon
7St James Theatre
8Bucket Fountain
9Parliament Buildings
10 Westpac Stadium
11 Wellington Zoo
12 Weta Cave
13Roxy Cinema
14Stone Street Studios
DW
15Park Road Post PRODUCTION
16Lyall Bay
17Red Rocks
18Shelly Bay
19Cook Strait
20Seatoun
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21 Foxglove
22The Green Parrot
23La Boca Loca
24 Café Polo
25 The Larder
26 Scorch-o-rama
BARS
27 The APARTMENT
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