Kaitoke Regional Park

On the drive down from Palmerston North to Wellington, a group of us girls ( Laura, Kirby, Stephanie and I) stopped at Kaitoke Regional Park which covers 2860 hectares in the foothills of the Tararua Ranges. Nearly half of Wellington's water is drawn from the Hutt River within Kaitoke Regional Park. The park contains nearly 2500 hectares of mature native forest, including beech, rimu, northern rata, hinau and kamahi. (80% of the plants and trees here are only found in New Zealand)

We opted for the 1hr Swing bridge walk. It is a loop trek over the Hutt River, through the rainforest and past the site where Rivendell, the home of the elves, from Lord of the Rings was filmed!

The weather didnt really co-operate with us but it was a great time nonetheless!

Upon entering the forest, we came across this massive tree! I thought it looked like Treebeard. These large trees were scattered throughout the rainforest! It was easy to imagine them coming to life since they all had such knarled roots springing up from the ground. A few were bent and twisted in odd shapes, and a few had holes big enough for a person to sleep in!



The trek itself was pretty mild, with a few jaunts up and down the hills.







Once we came out of the woods we were greeted with a lovely view of seemingly dead trees amongst the living.



Next we came into a clearing, only a few steps away from where the sign for Rivendell was located.







this is where a publicity photo of orlando bloom, as Legolas was shot...here is the actual poster shot:







Here is a shot of the Hutt River, where the Elves, Sam and Frodo sailed down in canoes. ( at least I think so...) It was pretty easy to see the resemblance of the area in person, more so than in the photos.