Day 24 Wellington and the surrounding hills

We took an all morning tour with a guide and 3 guys from South Africa who are here for the Rugby games.  Saw much of the city and hills overlooking the city.  The cable car was first built in 1901 in the San Francisco style where the operator gripped on to the cable to move the car up the hill; it has since been replaced by a Swiss design that uses two cars - one pulls up while the other goes down in a balanced operation and they cross in the middle.  The cable cars were installed to allow a suburban housing area to be easily accessed; it was successful and still is used by almost one third of the population every day.
 
The town feels like San Francisco or Pittsburgh built into the hills with steep curving roads up and down and houses tucked in everywhere, with the first floor front door on the street and the third floor rear door on the back yard.  Wellington is straight north of the South Pole and explorers provisioned here for years.  There is a monument to Admiral Byrd on the peak at Mt Victoria recognizing his historic efforts.
 
The afternoon was all LOTR (Lord of the Rings)!  We stopped at several spots in local parks that were used as locations for the movie.  The first stop was in the first movie after the 4 Hobbits leave the Shire and slide down a hill, find mushrooms and a hiding place from the Black Rider.  All these places are open in the hills around Wellington.  Then off to Miramar, the suburb housing the film industry, nicknamed Wellywood.

Finding Mushrooms site, Nazgul, Black Rider is searching for Hobbits‏:

Spot where Frodo searches for an escape:

Wellywood, home of the film industry: 

Weta Cave is the showroom and sales office for the enterprise. The 25 minute film gives a fun glimpse into the talent and process that turns stuff into movies.  It's a neat showroom/shrine to the creations of the Peter Jackson empire, plus other films they've done like Narnia, Avatar, King Kong, and lots of bloody horror movies. 

Entering Weta Cave is not all that easy if you’re a crab!

Gollum: 

Reepicheek (from the Narnia stories, for those that didn't know):