Last Look for the Rings

That's it b'ys, I'm done. Matamata, Ngauruhoe, Te Anau, Queenstown, Glenorchy, Arrowtown, the Southern Alps, and now the Weta Cave and Wellington . . . it may not be the end of all things, but my side adventure to find as much of Middle-earth in New Zealand as I could is officially finished. After a rainy day that took me through the gardens of Harcourt Park where two wizards once had a chat, and the forest that once had a small Elvish city built around it, I'd need a personal helicopter to find any more of these pristine filming locations.

The thing about these last few stops is that you need to have a decent sense of imagination. As in, when you see Gandalf and Sauruman out having a stroll before their geriatric duel (come on Gandalf, Christopher Lee is playing this guy, you should have guessed that's he's super-evil), you have to be able to mentally subtract the digitally rendered mountains and the side of the tower in order to link the shot to Harcourt Park, just outside of Wellington.

While we're at it, imagine that this . . .

. . . is this. I guess.

The moral of the story is that you have to take my word for it that the public green space in Upper Hutt had anything to do with The Lord of the Rings. On a rainy Saturday afternoon, in the middle of a Hutt Valley Harriers club run, it kind of felt a whole lot more like a regular park.

Kaitoke Regional Park, about 45 minutes north of the city, is sprawled around the Hutt River and at the doorstep of the Tararua Ranges. There's a great picnic area and little tramps through the leafy bush – and the site of Rivendell. Signs direct you, beyond any doubt, to the shady glen where Imladris once sat – this is the most comprehensive, flashy labelled site (aside from the tourist attraction of Hobbiton), which is a bit bizarre, considering how much you have to tilt your head and squint your eyes to imagine the scenes in the movie.

Carved Sindarin signposts, and irrefutable evidence that I

may not be as tall as a man, but I am taller than a hobbit

Even I was a bit confused, driving up the winding gravel road along the river – what the frig happened in Rivendell? Wasn't it all inside these nice stone buildings? It turns out that there was a whole exterior village built here, so that when Frodo goes out and gawks around the balcony, he's actually in this forest, even if the mountains and waterfalls came from Fiordland a few hundred clicks to the south. Actually, there are quite a few little glimpses of fancy buildings, bridges, and balconies, and they were all crammed into this space (crammed is the right word, too – movie magic made the scale look much larger than it actually is). One thing that definitely did happen in Kaitoke is the scene when the Fellowship are preparing to leave on their adventure. We get this shot:

And I swear to you that the camera was just to the right of me (and a bit higher) when I took this one. Amazing how, when you tear down the walls and let the forest grow for 14 years, it looks almost unrecognizable:

And with that, my tour of Middle-earth is over. And not a moment too soon, either – I was soaked, and the rain showed no sign of letting up that day.

After drying off and getting some dinner back in Wellington, I decided that the weather was just a minor detail – it was still Saturday night in the city, and there's no way I could go home with a clear conscience without going out and hearing some live Kiwi music. Back home, I try to listen to a decent chunk of music, and have something articulate to say about it. That articulation is open to debate, but the fact remains that, just like Lord of the Rings sites, it's easy to get jaded. The flip side of that is, when something jumps out as being particularly awesome, you notice it and appreciate it that much more.

Enter Wellington homegrown boy Miles Calder and his band, the Rumours. Alt-country is one of my favourite hyphenated words – no, it wasn't the stuff of epiphanies, but it was a free show with a dude on standup bass, a guy on electric guitar, and a blonde girl with a tambourine. Add beer and you get many wonderful things under the roof of the Southern Cross Golden Bar, the kind of Saturday night I'd have if I lived in this place. Deadly.

Today, after what seems like ages, the sky was clear and the sun was shining. Zealandia is a fragment of a continent that used to be joined up to Australia, India, South America, Africa, and Antarctica to make up a place called Gondwana. I said that the forest of Rivendell grew up considerably in 14 years – well, Gondwana existed around the same time as Pangaea, so a couple hundred million years happened in the meantime, during which Zealandia broke away and most of it (93%) ended up beneath the ocean. The part that still sticks up over the water is known as New Zealand nowadays. Zealandia also happens to be a huge natural reserve on the outskirts of Wellington, so named because it is a major attempt to recreate the natural environment of this place, before predators trampled all over the natural environment.

New Zealand, moreso than any other place I've visited, has a major priority to preserve the natural flora and fauna – some 30% of the countryside is protected, and the Department of Conservation does a lot more than regulate huts on Great Walks. Their commitment makes sense – it really is a unique island habitat down here, and a staggering 80% of the native plants exist only in New Zealand. Zealandia, an interpretation centre and the massive 224 ha Karori Sanctuary, is a major, ongoing eco-restoration project in a wooded valley. Walls that took 3 years to design run around the perimeter, to keep cats, stoats, rabbits, and other pests out – a network of trails make sure that when pests of the two-legged variety do get in, they don't muck anything up.

All told, it really is a sanctuary, a natural paradise that you can take in from a vantage point on top of a dam and feel how removed you are from 21st century New Zealand. Wellington sits just over the ridge, but if you close your eyes, all you can hear is a symphony of bird sounds (including the tui, which uses two voice boxes at once to make a recognizable but difficult to replicate song).

I actually really liked my afternoon in Zealandia. And, get this, I even learned some stuff (I know, I thought I knew everything, too). Like how the colourful, flightless takahe was thought to be extinct, until a few were found in the mountains near Te Anau in 1948, having fled from predators to higher altitudes. The two in Zealandia were brought up here a few years ago, after DOC ensured that the habitat was suitable – they're very territorial, so that's all the park is going to get of the 250 (ish) population that exists.

I watched a kaka, a jungle parrot, eat with his feet, while tui and other small birds crowded around the ground, to try to scoop up the crumbs. Kaka are one of three types of parrots endemic to New Zealand – the others are the kakapo, a flightless yellow mongrel, and the cheeky kea, that silly little bird that I went out of my way (several times) down south to try to find and turned up empty handed.

If the short-finned eel looked a bit cuter, their story could make a great Disney movie. Right when they're at the end of their life (so around 30 years), they swim out to the Pacific Ocean, to Tonga (way up by Fiji), lay a million eggs or so, and then die. Their transparent youngsters hatch, float back to New Zealand on ocean currents, and set up camp here, where after 30 years or so they take the same route their parents took to get back up to the Pacific Islands. To me, that's pretty groovy.

The walk through the woods branched off in a bunch of different directions, and after a couple hours I'd barely skimmed the surface. Lots more chances to explore – not for me, not this time at least, but if you do end up with a sunny day in Wellington (or a nice night, to see if you can lay your eyes on a little spotted kiwi) there are worse spots you could end up. There are plenty of weird and wonderful things to see out roaming about – even the rare sighting of a member of the family luckius bastardius.

It's a clear night now, with a brilliant full moon (must be the supermoon they're talking about) and a frosty chill to the winter air. Perfect finish to an afternoon of walking through the bush and my very own, homemade savoury chicken pies – watch out Canada, you're not going to know what hit you when you come to my house for supper. The fine weather ought to hold tomorrow, for an early rise to go plant trees up the Wairarapa – native New Zealand trees, obviously. It might take hundreds of years for a reserved sanctuary like Zealandia to reclaim its former grandeur, but that doesn't mean that it's not worth doing my part with a shovel and some saplings while I've got a chance.

Cheers,

rb