Auckland & WETA Unleashed & LOTR Musical

Hello everyone,

I am sitting in Sydney and just treated myself to a Starbucks, as I was able to borrow a screwdriver from the nice folks at the laptop shop next door to fix my laptop. It gave up the ghost during the last few days on Fiji. To put it briefly, the battery lost contact - I was somewhat prepared for this special case (it happened to me before), but unfortunately, the corresponding screwdriver was taken from me at the airport in Auckland. Well, everything worked out, and I had a super nice conversation with the owners. So now I'm back to blogging diligently for you. ;) Maybe I'll catch up to date in the coming days.

I have also uploaded the photos to round off my day in Auckland, and that's why this post is coming now.

We started relatively early and initially drove to the northern tip of Auckland for breakfast with our group of four. The district is super cute and an old part of the city with many small alleys and cafés. We ended up in a French café, which Marilou, the French-speaking Canadian, really liked.

After that, we headed to the WETA Unleashed Workshop right in downtown. Here, we slightly underestimated the time, which led us to rush through the check-in like the Europeans. We arrived on time even though I was a bit grumpy about everything being so tight. These are the pros and cons of group outings. I'm not alone, but not everything goes my way either. ;)

WETA Unleashed in Auckland is very different from the tour I did in Wellington, as the entire background here is based on 3 'films' that WETA conceptualized specifically, as this is the only way they can show everything, otherwise it would violate the filmmakers' regulations and clauses. One of the reasons why I wasn't allowed to take photos in Wellington either.

Due to this difference, I have to say that I liked Wellington much better. Furthermore, the rooms were so full of things and explanations that I didn’t have enough time to enjoy everything in peace, or it was just overwhelming.

Conclusion after the tour: Cool to see, but if time is tight, I would definitely choose Wellington.

And to completely satisfy my inner nerd and to reveal the actual reason why we were in Auckland: The Lord of the Rings Musical. A 3.5-hour musical that completely blew us away, and the music is now a core memory of New Zealand. The musical has already been performed in the USA, and its original version was about 5 hours long. But since that was too long for an international performance, it was shortened to 3.5 hours. Ironically, this led to the second part of the books and films being almost non-existent in the musical. Honestly, rightfully so, as nothing happens there that necessarily contributes to the story.

In the beginning, all the female singers were on stage and interacted with the guests and the audience. They played ring toss and made some jokes, and the atmosphere was fantastic from the outset, as the audience was super relaxed and lighthearted.

To summarize everything: If you get the chance to go to the musical: DO IT! It’s really worth it.

Besides the musical, the trip was also worthwhile because we were able to see the Civic Center in Auckland from the inside. Everything in this building has historical significance, and there are glass display cases with various exhibits that have been collected over time.

And sometimes I'm lucky, right.... 2 weeks after the trip, I am at work, and while scanning the tickets for my tour, I notice a face that looks very familiar. Well, can you guess? I had one of the main characters from the musical on my tour! WOW - I had quite a fangirl moment and squealed like a little pig with joy because BILBO was on my tour. (And even left a comment about my great tour on Google. ;) )

A post about Hobbiton is also coming, I promise.

Your Britta