mytravelbugbite

We had 1 full day scheduled in Wellington, although we were coming through on our journey back North at the end of the trip. We had pre booked a Boxing Day trip to the Weta Workshop tour so we woke and made our way to Miramar to get checked in.

The tour was fascinating but no photos were allowed during most of it. We were given a great insight into how some of the magic of the movies is brought to life. Despite the company being most famous for The Lord of the Rings, this was not the sole focus of the tour as Weta has worked on thousands of other projects so is suitable even if you just love films. I came away wondering how I could possibly get a job there with my almost non-existent crafting skills.

We then spent a long time in the Weta Cave, which is the gift shop, trying to narrow down our wish list of purchases, a task I was much more successful at than Fraser who went into full “treat yourself” mode.

As it was approaching lunch time we had another task to find somewhere open for food so settled on a fish and chip shop which was opposite the art deco Roxy cinema.

Next we made the drive out toward Cape Palliser to visit the Putangirua Pinnacles. This is a little off the beaten track but is 100% worth the effort. The gravel hoodoos that have been eroded down by the Putangirua Stream are where the Paths of the Dead in The Return of the King were filmed. We parked at a campsite at the base then started our walk. Due to the time we walked the trail along the river bed, part of which was officially closed due to previous landslides but after reading up on recent reviews seemed to be mainly cleared and accessible. The path was uneven and rocky with a couple of water crossings and at times it was fairly steep but the views of the other-worldly landscape more than made up for the effort put in.

Once finished we backtracked to Wellington to get ready to take the early morning ferry across the Cook Strait to the South Island.