On the first of December 2003, Wellington closed its main streets for a film. The Return of the King, the last of Peter Jackson's three Lord of the Rings films, was having its world premiere here, in a picture palace at the end of Courtenay Place. Wellington had been the production base for all three films, and the city turned out to celebrate. This walk follows that day in order: the parade leaving Parliament, the march down Lambton Quay, the waterfront where the night would end, the red carpet and the theater. Then the story jumps back four years, to the very first day of filming, and climbs into the pine woods of Mount Victoria, where the first scene of the trilogy was shot. It finishes on the summit, looking across to the suburb where Middle-earth was made. This is an unofficial fan walk, not made with or endorsed by the filmmakers or the studio. It's one of our self-guided walking tours, about 5.4 kilometers from the Beehive to the Mount Victoria Lookout, and the last part is a real hill climb.

Before you set off

Allow about two hours, longer if you linger at the museum. The first two thirds of the walk are flat city pavement. Then the route climbs from the Embassy Theatre, close to sea level, to the summit at 196 meters. The council's notes on the Mount Victoria walkway describe many steep sections, some as steep as 20 degrees, with steps, exposed tree roots and mud after rain. The tracks are shared with mountain bikers, and they're not suitable for prams or wheelchairs. Wear proper shoes with good grip. If the climb isn't for you, Metlink bus 20 runs between the city and the lookout, so you can ride up for the finale and back down at the end. It doesn't run often, so check the timetable first. The railway station is about five minutes on foot from the start. Te Papa, the national museum on the route, is free for New Zealand residents, while international visitors now pay, so check before you go. Save this one for a clear day if you can, because the last stop is all about the view.

Parliament (the Beehive)

You're in the grounds of New Zealand's Parliament on Molesworth Street. The round building with the stacked, narrowing floors is the Beehive, the executive wing of Parliament. The grand stone building beside it is Parliament House. The grounds are open to the public, so find a spot where you can see both.

Now picture this place on the afternoon of the first of December 2003. Inside, there's a reception for the people who made the film. Outside, a parade is forming up. At half past three it sets off from here, bound for a red carpet across town, where it's due at around half past four.

And what a parade. There are Māori warriors. Actors dressed as orcs and elves walk the streets. Riders of Rohan and Ringwraiths go by on horseback. For the afternoon, Lambton Quay, Willis Street and Manners Street are closed to traffic, from midday until six, so the procession has the heart of the city to itself.

Before you follow it, a flash-forward. Seven years later, this building became part of a different Middle-earth story. In October 2010, after a deal with Warner Bros to keep The Hobbit films in New Zealand, the House went into urgency, a procedure that lets a law pass quickly, to pass the Employment Relations Film Production Work Amendment Bill. It treated film workers as contractors. The government also paid 10 million US dollars toward marketing. People called it the Hobbit law. It was contested at the time, and it still is.

That's later. For now, it's 3.30 in the afternoon, and the horses are moving. Follow them. From the Beehive, walk south down Lambton Quay, the street that runs from Parliament's corner into the city, as far as Cable Car Lane on your right. About ten minutes.

Lambton Quay

Office towers above Lambton Quay, Wellington

You're on Lambton Quay, the long shopping street Wellingtonians call the Golden Mile. Cable Car Lane, beside you, is the entrance to the Wellington Cable Car. On an ordinary day this is where the city comes to shop. On premiere day, it was the parade route.

The shops on Lambton Quay handed out tickertape for free that day, so the crowds lining this street could throw it as the procession went past. Picture the paper coming down over the riders and the orcs, under these shop awnings, on a street closed to traffic for the day.

It wasn't the city's first Middle-earth party. Two years earlier, Wellington had hosted a big premiere night for the first film, The Fellowship of the Ring. You'll hear about that at the theater. But this time it was the world premiere of the last chapter.

From here the parade kept going the way the streets go, down Lambton Quay into Willis Street, then along Manners Street toward Courtenay Place and the red carpet. We'll meet it again there. First, we take a short detour to the harbor, because that's where the night would finish, and where the city's love affair with these films had already been put on public display a year before.

Keep the order of the day in mind as you walk: parade in the afternoon, red carpet and screening in the evening, and a party by the water late at night. We're simply visiting the party a little early.

Walk on south along Lambton Quay for a couple of blocks, then turn left toward the harbor, cross the waterfront road at the lights and follow the waterfront promenade south to Te Papa, the large museum right on the water. About 17 minutes.

Te Papa

You're at Te Papa, the national museum of New Zealand, at 55 Cable Street. Stand where you can see its harbor side and the open wharf next to it.

A year before the premiere, in December 2002, this museum opened The Lord of the Rings Motion Picture Trilogy: The Exhibition. On the first day, 1,600 people came through the doors. By the end of its first run here, 220,000 had seen it, and afterwards the exhibition went on tour. The last film wasn't even out yet.

The museum still keeps a small piece of premiere day. In its collection are world premiere passes for The Return of the King, given in 2024 in memory of Georgina Beyer. Hold on to that image, a simple pass to a night the whole city wanted in on.

Now look at the wharf beside the museum. That's Taranaki Wharf, and on the night of the first of December 2003, it was where the party went after the red carpet. There was a pōwhiri, a Māori ceremony of welcome. A big screen stood on the wharf, and at half past nine that night it showed The Two Towers, the second film, in what was New Zealand's first public outdoor screening of it. The new film belonged to the theater that night. The wharf got the one before it, on a big screen by the water.

The craftsmanship behind the films is inside the museum today too, in a very different setting. Wētā Workshop, the company that helped make the trilogy, made the giant figures in Te Papa's Gallipoli: The Scale of Our War, 2.4 times life size. The exhibition opened in 2015 and has been extended to April 2032. It's a war memorial, about real soldiers, so treat it as one.

Head away from the harbor, south-west, across Cable Street and Wakefield Street, to Courtenay Place. About seven minutes. Stop by the big cinema building at number 100.