Half day Lord of the Rings tour: Explore Wellington's iconic LOTR filming locations

Embark on a half-day Lord of the Rings tour in Wellington, New Zealand. Visit iconic filming locations, including Mount Victoria Lookout, Hobbiton Woods, and the Weta Workshop. Get a behind-the-scenes glimpse of prop and weapon making, and meet talented artists at work. Don’t miss the chance to take photos with Gollum, Lurtz the Uruk-hai, and Bilbo’s three Trolls. Book now for an unforgettable adventure!

Duration: 4 hours
Cancellation: 24 hours
Highlights
  • Mount Victoria - Mt Victoria Lookout, great view of Wellington
  • Mount Victoria - Hobbiton Woods 5 filming sites from 1st LORs movie
  • Weta Workshop Group Space - Tour of Weta workshop seeing how props and weaponry is made as well as sets from Thunderbirds
What's Included
  • Convenient hotel pickup and drop-off
  • Knowledgeable driver/guide
  • All-inclusive Goods and Services Tax (GST)
  • Engaging live commentary during the tour
  • Comfortable transport in an air-conditioned minivan
What's Not Included
  • Gratuities
  • Bottled water
  • Tea and coffee
Additional Information

We head towards the Mount Victoria Lookout, driving through Courtenay Place and past the Embassy Picture Theatre, renowned for premiering two globally recognized films; The Return of the King from The Lord of the Rings (2003), and The Hobbit’s first film An Unexpected Journey (2012), to capture panoramic views of Wellington city.
Subsequently, we…

Location
i-SITE Bus Pickup Point
Wakefield Street
The Wellington iSite Bus Stop at 145 Wakefield Steet is the alternative pick up point if you are not arriving off a Cruise Ship or your Hotel is outside of the CBD pick up zone.
Cancellation Policy

For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.

Customer Ratings
4.7
(114 Ratings)
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Cchirschy
Mar 23, 2025
Fantastic Half-Day LOTR Tour - Great tour for cruise ship passengers. Pickup in the port just past the ships tour buses. Easy walk. Our guide and driver Jozef was super. He provided so much great info on the port and city as well as LOTR lore. And the WETA workshop was stunning and included much more than LOTR. They’re involved in hundreds of movies, and cinematic elements.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Sara_b
Mar 18, 2025
Lester was great! - I had a great time. Lester was enthusiastic and a wealth of info. He gave us some history of Wellington and did a fantastic job with quotes from LOTR! Weta Workshops was very interesting and creative. I am glad I chose this excursion!
Review provided by Viator
Vicky_k
Mar 11, 2025
Everything from the Guide... - Everything from the Guide that we had to the experiences that they took us to were really wonderful.
Review provided by Viator
Ellen_s
Mar 7, 2025
LOTR filming sites were great. Weta Workshop focused on past productions. - My husband and I are LOTR nerds and this excursion was great. Richard, our guide, did a wonderful job describing movie sites in the city and helping us to take photos recreating key moments in the film. Weta Workshop was interesting, but you don’t actually tour where people are creating props for upcoming movies. Everything was focused on past productions. Fortunately they focused on LOTR and The Hobbit which I appreciated.
Review provided by Viator
Catham1
Mar 4, 2025
Lovely trip with knowledgeable guide - We did a bit of useful general sightseeing of Wellington City on our way to the LOR rings sites included in this trip. The tour guide knew a lot about the filming of LOR and this made a huge difference to our experience. The second part of the trip was to WETA workshop, where the group was immersed in all the LOR trivia they could hope for! I even got a picture of me turned into a 4 ft hobbit complete with furry hobbit feet!
Review provided by Viator
Sharone522
Mar 1, 2025
Very informative and enjoyable - Richard was very knowledgeable and showed us many great sights of Wellington. He explained the forest shots and let us get into character.The Weta Workshop was amazing.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Geoffr975
Feb 23, 2025
A great experience - This was an excellent tour with a great guide Richard - very knowledgeable and passionate. Small group size was also a benefit.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Margaret_k
Mar 24, 2025
Great day out - Very interesting and a lot of fun. The locations were gorgeous and the workshop was well done although slightly dull. .
Review provided by Viator
Olga_l
Mar 15, 2025
Well worth it! - The forest portion was very pretty. But if the tour guide didn't have the pictures, you couldn't tell that LOR was shot there. The tour guides were great! The Weta Workshop was very neat! We had a great time and much cheaper than the tour from our cruise ship.
Review provided by Viator
D6591jfsusans
Feb 24, 2025
Pluses and Minuses - Our guide, Stan, took us to the site where some scenes in the Lord of the Rings were filmed. We trekked through the scenic area where he pointed out exact spots for various scenes, making for an interesting experience. Although we were impressed with the WETA workshop's accomplishments, our visit was somewhat of a disappointment, mainly because of our guide there. She was hard to understand and a bit irritating, so we didn't get as much out of the experience as we had hoped. The only other issue we encountered was waiting over half an hour for a couple from the ship to appear; turned out that they had cancelled the night before but Stan wasn't informed. Perhaps a time limit for customers should be set with the knowledge there won't be a long grace period.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
From $113
up to 15 guests
1 - Adult
Cancellation: Free cancellation up to 24 hours before the start of your experience (local time).