Discovering Hobbit’s Hideaway on Mount Victoria, NZ

Disclaimer: This blog is in no way sponsored by, or affiliated with New Line Cinema or the Tolkien Estate. The commentary provided in this post is provided for educational purposes, not for profit, and falls under fair use.

Mount Victoria is a hill located near the central business district in Wellington, New Zealand. Lovingly referred to as Mount Vic, it is a popular spot for walking and mountain biking, but also has roads and parking areas all the way to the top of the hill.

Mount Victoria also served as an easily recognizable filming location for several scenes in Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. It is such a popular destination for tours, tourists, and New Zealanders alike, that the filming locations’ trail has even been formally named Hobbit’s Hideaway and has several markers to denote its role in the popular 2001 movie.

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The Hobbit’s Hideaway Trail

Upon learning I would be spending time in Wellington, I knew I had to track down these filming locations and recreate some scenes from The Fellowship of the Ring. Mount Victoria is easily accessible by car or by bus from nearly anywhere in Wellington and the surrounding areas, so I took a quick drive from where I was staying in Te Aro to Mt. Victoria. Not knowing exactly where the Hobbit’s Hideaway trail was located, I parked in a lot about halfway up Mount Vic. To my surprise, a trail map revealed I was only steps away from the filming locations!

Fun Fact: This filming location is one of only three in all of New Zealand (that I’m aware of) that have signs denoting their role in The Lord of the Rings movies – the other two being Mount Sunday (Edoras) and Kaitoke Regional Park (Rivendell).

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I excitedly began the walk towards the Hobbit’s Hideaway trail. With the dirt paths and greenery all around me, I felt as though I was immersed in the wooded outskirts of the Shire. The filming location was almost immediately recognizable – if not because of the tourists – due to the steep hill on the side of the path that the hobbits tumble down after narrowly fleeing from Farmer Maggot.

With a lot of trial and error and my extremely patient boyfriend as my photographer, I was able to almost perfectly replicate some scenes from the movie.

The Shire Filming Locations

As Sam, Merry, and Pippin recover from their tumble down the hill and pick some mushrooms they found, Frodo hears something coming in the distance. “Get off the road!”

Frodo and the other hobbits jump off the road and hide under a tree’s roots as the ring wraith searches for the ring. The tree was an inorganic prop created by special effects artists at Weta Workshop and was unfortunately removed after filming. The recess in the ground where the actors hid remains, however, and the trees in the background are easily identifiable.

While these two filming locations are definitely the most photographed and visited on Mount Victoria, there is one harder to find spot that most people miss. I nearly missed it myself until I spotted the tiny little path. After Frodo and Sam leave the Shire, they sit in a tree and take a break before they see the elves journeying West.

This tree is slightly off the main path and can be a little tricky to get to. If you walk slightly past the recess where the hobbits hide, on the lower side of the road there is a steep, even smaller path going downwards.

If you follow this steep path down, it will make a U-turn to the right and you will end up right at Frodo’s tree, looking at it from the same angle it was filmed from. Here, you can see the spot Frodo rests on the left and the root Sam sits on in the middle.

These three filming spots, combined with the beautiful scenery of Mount Victoria, make for a wonderful day trip. You’ll feel just like a hobbit venturing out of The Shire for the first time.

If you could go to the filming site of any Lord of the Rings scene and recreate it, which would it be? Let me know down in the comments!

Know Before You Go

• The Hobbit’s Hideaway track is a very short walk and isn’t at all strenuous, however, the path is very uneven and rocky. Some of the spots where you may want to stand to take pictures are quite steep as well, so choose your footwear accordingly.
  
  
  
• If you are in a wheelchair or differently abled, this trail may be difficult to traverse without help due to some steep areas.
  
• Though Lord of the Rings themed tours of this area are available, this is probably the number one location where tours are super unnecessary. It is a very accessible location where the filming spots are easy to pick out by yourself.
  
• If you want to recreate scenes from the movie like I did, it’s best to plan ahead and have pictures from the movie available on your phone for when you’re there. It will make posing and figuring out where the photos should be taken from a lot easier.
  
• To get the best angled photo of the recess where the hobbits hide, the photo-taker needs to stand significantly to the left of the large tree (hopefully you see what I mean if you’re there right now).
  
• There are often many tourists and hikers on the path, so don’t expect to have the place to yourself. Be courteous to others and respectful of the land.

Other Things to do in the Area

• Book a tour of Weta Workshop in Miramar, Wellington, the special effects studio who created the art and effects for The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, and many other fantastical films.
  
  
• Hike (or drive!) to the top of Mount Victoria to get an amazing view of Wellington
  
  
  
  
• Explore Wellington’s central business district and the scenic harbor.
  
  
  
  
• Get some tasty coffee or “drinking chocolate” (hot chocolate for us Americans) at the Rubia Express cafe in Newtown, Wellington (one of my favorites).
  
  

If I have used your image in this article and you would like it removed, please contact me and I would be happy to remove it.

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