Putangirua Pinnacles, New Zealand

The Pūtangirua Pinnacles in the far south of New Zealand's North Island is seen as the Paths of the Dead in THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING, the final part of the trilogy. Director Peter Jackson had previously used this location for the opening scene of his 1992 film Braindead.

Pūtangirua Pinnacles, 23 January 2020

The jagged rock formations are part of the Aorangi Forest Park, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) from Wellington as the crow flies but it is almost a 75-mile (120-kilometer) drive to get there. There is a car park by the sea, then it is an hour's walk to the gorge. Visitors walk along a riverbed that had almost completely dried up during our visit. Halfway there, one can choose to walk along a path through the forest or to keep following the riverbed.

We chose the forest as the trees provided shade on this hot day. Although there is no real climbing, the path goes uphill.

The Pūtangirua Pinnacles are constantly changing. The current erosion rate is about 0.4 inch (1 centimeter) per year. Although the gorge is not big, I could not match the route taken by Argaron (Viggo Mortenson), Legolas (Orlando Bloom) and Gimli (John Rhys-Davies) with my photos, except for the scene where the camera pans around Legolas.