20 travel destinations inspired by Lord of the Rings

Weta Workshop and Cave – Wellington, New Zealand

Weta Workshop is a New Zealand-based company that specializes in creating props and special effects for films and television series. They’ve worked on a number of blockbuster hits, including Thor: Ragnarok, Pacific Rim: Uprising, and Power Rangers—just to name a few of the more recent ones.

Of course, given its inclusion on this list, Weta Workshop also played a significant role in designing props and effects for both The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies. The company is responsible for much of the armor and weaponry that appears throughout both series, an awesome feat in itself. And unlike Stone Street Studios, the film studio behind the movies, Weta Workshop offers tours that are open to the public.

Tours of Weta Workshop can be booked through the company’s website, and there are several different options visitors can choose from depending on tastes and budget. Fans that drool over items like Gandalf’s sword and Gimli’s battle axe will definitely find joy in hearing how they were designed, and they might even learn a bit about props from other films they’ve enjoyed.

While checking out Weta Workshop, fans can also stop by Weta Cave. While this requires heading to a different location, it’s worth the trek. Weta Cave contains a small museum and a souvenir shop that sells The Lord of the Rings items, and it plays a documentary film giving insight into the behind-the-scenes aspects of prop design. Weta Cave is also free to enter, which is always an incentive for visiting.