Rivendell
Just north of Wellington is Kaitoke Regional Park, home to the site of Rivendell/Imladris from "Lord of the Rings"
December 15, 2004

01-KaitokeRegionalPark Kaitoke Regional Park ... about 45 minutes NE of Wellington just off SH2 ... I swung by here on Wednesday, December 15, 2005, on my way from Wellington up to Taupo 02-Kaitoke Kaitoke 03-RivendellDirections Directions to Rivendell ... just about the only sign anywhere in New Zealand indicating the way towards a LOTR film site 04-WayToRivendell Way to Rivendell 05-PakuratahiRiver Pakuratahi River 06-Glade Open glade 07-RivendellThisWay This way to Rivendell 08-RivendellSign Rivendell info sign 09-Rivendell Rivendell ... it's kinda hard to picture everything being in place, because they computer-edited the landscape a ton (adding waterfalls, tall cliffs, etc) 10-PakuratahiRiver Pakuratahi River 11-RiverThroughRivendell The river that flowed through Rivendell 12-RiverThroughRivendell River through Rivendell 13-RivendellHillside Rivendell hillside ... a couple buildings were actually built out over the edge of this hillside, with stilt supports going down to the riverbed 14-PakuratahiRiver Pakuratahi River 15-Rivendell Rivendell 16-Rivendell Rivendell 17-Rivendell Rivendell 18-Rivendell Rivendell/Imladris/Kaitoke Regional Park 19-Rivendell Rivendell 20-Rivendell Rivendell 21-Rivendell Rivendell 22-PakuratahiRiver Pakuratahi River 23-Swingbridge Swingbridge over the river 24-PakuratahiRiver Pakuratahi River 25-Riverbank Riverbank 26-RimaTree Rima tree ... rima is a prized type of wood native to New Zealand, that is now protected by the government 27-RimaTree Rima trees do grow quite tall 28-Swingbridge-HuttPakuratahiRivers Swingbridge over the confluence of the Hutt and Pakuratahi Rivers 29-TararuaRangeRoad-NarrowWinding To hop back over to SH1 from Kaitoke, I had to take the slow, curvy Tararua Range Road, which as is evident from the sign, is narrow and winding for a full 30 km! 30-NarrowWindingRoad Narrow, winding, often one-lane road ... slow-going, and somewhat nerve-wracking 31-TararuaRanges Tararua Ranges