Way back in June 2008, I went to Comic Con. Really nerdy I know, I don't even like comic books, I went for Twilight, which probably doesn't make it better. But despite all that, I was presented with an incredible opportunity to meet Richard Taylor at the Weta Workshop table. I kinda cried at first but once I was able to pull myself together was able to profess my love for Lord of the Rings and told him I loved the work he did for LOTR. Then when I told him I was going to come to New Zealand to study abroad, he gave me his business card and said to come by the workshop for a tour. Well, two years later, in current times, I emailed him and he said this would still be possible. So I set off for a weekend in Wellington before finals started.
Elyse and I arrived late afternoon. We were planning on staying with one of my fellow EAP kids and one of the girls from the first road trip while in Wellington but was unable to get a hold of her. This led to our search for a cheap hostel and some exploring in Wellington. We found the City in the Lodge, which from the outside looks super shady but wasn't really that bad once inside. Then it was off to dinner at Great India, which was really good. Then we went back to hang out and relax at the hostel.
The next day we were able to get a hold of Sarah and began our morning trekking up the giant hill to her house. Once we got to the top and settled in, all three of us went off for a breakfast adventure. This resulted in eating cookies before breakfast, which actually ended up being at lunch time anyway. After a good breakfast at the all day breakfast place, we went to check times at the Embassy Theater.
This is where they held the Austrasian Premiere for the Fellowship, Two Towers, and the World Premiere for Return of the King. They were playing a NZ film called Home by Christmas so we decided to give it a shot at 5:30. We then went to the Te Papa museum which was free and had a lot of really cool exhibits. Me in a traditional Maori Marai
Once we had thoroughly learned all we could, we went back to the Embassy for our movie. We got there early so we could run around in the theater and see all the sponsored seats by all the actors and such.
It was really awesome to know they had seen the movie complete for the first time in the same place we were. The movie turned out to be about the Kiwis fighting in WWII and was a bit documentary with some flashbacks acted out. It was very representative of the Kiwis attitude to life.
Just chillin in Liv Tyler's seat
After the movie we went to Coyote, a Mexican place for dinner and a beer. Then we began the trek back up the hill to Sarah's house where we chilled until late into the night.
The following day was when we had planned on the tour of the Weta Workshop. I made a few calls and left messages while we did some shopping and had an incredible breakfast at this place called Ernesto's. I had raisin french toast with apples on top while Elyse had berry pancakes. Overall fantastic. Then as we were attempting to find Parliament, I got the phone call I had been waiting for. We immediately hopped on a bus to Miramar and arrived at the Weta Workshop.
Upon entering, we had to sign confidentiality waivers before heading into the conference room. In front of me were not only figurines from almost every movie they have done, but the 5 Academy Awards they had won for the LOTR trilogy. Then it was on to downstairs. There we saw all the LOTR shields, armor, weapons, as well as things from their other movies as well. Overall it was really awesome going where so few have been before. We also found out early that Guillermo del Toro (the Hobbit Director) had quit that day. Then it was on to show Elyse the Weta Cave. While the tour was not what I expected, I still felt extremely grateful for the opportunity.
That night we made dinner with Sarah's housemates and had a fun night full of stuffed peppers, macrame, guitar playing and youtube videos. The next morning Elyse left early to get her haircut and I enjoyed sleeping in. Once she was back, we decided to head to Parliament. We fortunately got there right on the hour and was able to get a tour of the Parliament building. Then right after our tour was over, the house had just started a debate and we could go in and watch it. It was fascinating to see how small there House was compared to ours. They all sat there joking and yelling out of turn and even talked about issues relevant to us. We got so wrapped up in the excitement, we realized we had to be at the airport in 30 minutes and had to still go back up the hill to get our bags before catching a bus.
The Trolls from the Hobbit/Fellowship of the Ring in the Airport
There was no way we were going to make it so instead we caught a cab up, grabbed our bags and took a cab to the airport. We made our flight without any problems because of how laid back the airport security is. Overall the weekend was a perfect break from Lincoln and was everything I could have hoped for.
Heres a link to the photos on facebook!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=182090&id=665896295&l=985eeeccef
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