Rained all night, got up to sun and went to Kaitoke Regional Park, and followed the signs to "Rivendell" and found some of the spots along the Hutt that they built the Rivendell sets at, though not really exact locations. After that, we went to Harcourt Park, not too far away with a little back-tracking, and found some of the places they shot the Isengard Gardens, such as Gandalf's ride in, the ripping down of large trees, and the Saruman and Gandalf walking/talking scene. After this, we were pointed to a completely hidden drive which had a landing on the Hutt River, where they shot a lot of Anduin/Rohan river scenes. In particular, this landing was where they filmed Brego retrieving Aragorn after his fall from the warg battle. We found what had to be the spot, but I couldn't identify it until my father realized the problem : the river was too high! But we'd found the spot for sure. A local woman walking her dogs confirmed it. We then made are way across Akatarawa Road. This is a surprisingly BAD road, and we will not be driving it again although it's the direct route to our next destination tomorrow. After The Crossing, we stopped at Queen Elizabeth Park where they filmed some of the closeups from Pellenor Fields (the dead Nazgul, dead Mumakil, etc.). Not much to see there, but the open fields were few, so we had to have the right ones. It ended in beach so I finally got my feet and legs wet in the ocean water under the sun for a bit. Checked in at the B&B and after dinner, I walked down to the beach to see if I could get a sunset, but the sun went down behind a remote cloud bank. Still, I had a nice two hours or so sitting on some driftwood watching the sun go down.

Three times today people walking dogs helped us find Lord of the Rings spots. We were wandering Harcourt Park a bit aimlessly (the book tells you where the parks are, etc., but is frustratingly vague on the details), and a woman with her dog asked us from afar if we were looking for Lord of the Rings spots. We responded in the affirmative, and she pointed out exactly where the trees were fell, etc.. The one spot we couldn't find was where Saruman and Gandalf talked in the gardens, and I was wandering off and a man with a dog asked me if I found all the sites ok, and I said 'well, not this one' and showed him in the book, and he said 'ah, it's this way, here, I'll show you' and off we went. Then at the riverbed, a woman with her dogs affirmed this was the spot Aragorn was rescued by Brego. All very neat. I got a great picture of where the Road into Isengard was, with Gandalf riding it, because we could identify exactly a tree that's in the shot as seen in the book.

When I went to the beach for sunset (I was a bit early) I sat on a small bit of driftwood, and on a nearby large tree of driftwood a woman called me over to ask the time, and I sat and talked with her for a while. She's from India and was visiting, and then a woman she was visiting came by and we all talked. They left, and then a couple from Toronto (but not THE couple from Toronto) stopped, and we chatted for a bit. A little later, an elderly woman stopped, we talked for a bit, she started to leave and commented on our US President, and we launched into a political conversation for a while (mostly in agreement) (she's originally from the UK I believe), and she left. I left soon after without a decent sunset to photograph, and as I was walking, she came back from her house and called to me, I went back, and she had for me a calendar of old photos from this region, and on the back a photo that includes her from 1936 or so, and of Queen Elizabeth Park from when US military were stationed there. So it was a quiet, restful time watching the sun go down and the water and chatting with all different people on the beach, who all stopped to talk with a guy sitting on some driftwood on the beach. Nice evening indeed.