LOTR City Wellington

Hello and welcome back,

I'm writing to you again from work, as I really can't manage to write much after work. Over the past 2 days, especially since I am still recovering from my bronchitis. This means that after work I am completely exhausted and apart from dinner, I have no further activities planned.

This is quite fitting for the upcoming post, as I am sitting in the Shire and writing about The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit in Wellington. Wellington is not only the capital of New Zealand, but it is also one of the largest centers for the film industry. A major player here is the WETA Workshop. This company offers '...services for film projects such as design concepts, makeup effects, props, creatures, puppets, miniatures, models, and large sculptures, and also produces merchandise.' (Wikipedia) In short, this company does everything that a film lover desires and has worked on some of the biggest films in film history. One of these projects was also The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, and the new Amazon series Rings of Power. And in the holy halls of WETA, film enthusiasts can buy a lot of cool merch and admire a whole lot of original film props.

WETA is located in the eastern part of Wellington, which meant for me that I had to drive queer through Wellington, and to make it worthwhile, I took the long and more scenic route.

Still an hour early for my tour, I lay in bed for a bit before the shop and read. This is another advantage of traveling directly with the house - I can take a break wherever I want and have a nap or make myself cozy with my fluffy thick blanket.

In the entrance area for the tour and at the same time the merch shop, I was greeted by the 3 trolls from The Hobbit. Tom, Bert, and William had a special reason for this, as unknowingly, I had booked a tour on the day WETA turned 19 years old and therefore celebrated with a party and free cake. I casually browsed for about 20 minutes in the shop and actually managed to hold back and didn't buy any merch. Among other things, because I don't have any more space in my backpack for it.

The exhibits are really impressive and incredibly detailed. And after I looked at everything for a few minutes, the tour was about to start. This led through some special rooms, and we were explained how a normal person is transformed into an orc. We could also take a look into WETA's forge and milling department. Very, very funny, as they used CNC machines for the production of special pieces made from styrofoam or firmer materials. During the tour, no photos were allowed, but after the tour, there were 2 rooms that were supposed to represent the different departments of WETA and also show how the departments work and what projects they are working on or have worked on.

The second room was meant to particularly show the process of how the artists create various sculptures from aluminum foil. These are then poured over with cement and can withstand quite a lot. I also tried my hand at this art, and I think my kiwi turned out quite well:

In addition to my tour, I also booked a workshop focused on leatherwork on set. However, the coolest part of this shop wasn't the workshop itself, but the room where it all took place. In this room, there was a life-size figure of Azog the Defiler on display, along with some of the film sets from the new Amazon series Rings of Power.

After this really nice tour, we continued to some of the filming locations in Wellington. What’s special in the city is that some of the locations were shot in the city park. Also very cool is that in the park, some benches have been set up, on which some of the most famous quotes from J.R.R. Tolkien are displayed.

Walking through the park was already beautiful, but knowing that some of the most famous scenes were shot here made it even more interesting.

I hope you can recognize the locations, and if not, I would suggest you rewatch the films. ;)

After this intense LOTR day, I made my way to a freedom camping spot in Wellington to spend the night there.

On the way there, I spontaneously found a Moai statue, and the view from my parking spot was truly dreamy. The night was a bit restless since even at 6 AM, the first day tours were coming, as this parking area apparently is also the starting point for diving tours. I was happy for the divers, but honestly, I would have preferred to go diving myself rather than lying awake in the car.

After these cool days in Wellington, I was slowly heading north to circumnavigate the great bay.

More about that in my next post. ;)

Your Britta