Nerding out at Weta workshops

Visiting Wets was at the top of Mats things to do list inNew Zealand (and OK so I was pretty keen too) so today is all about making sure we do that. I had booked everything you can do at Weta workshops tour for the afternoon.

The first thing we have to do in the morning though is pick up the hire car. Luckily the airport is only a short walk away. We can start our LOTR day by checking out Smaug and Gandalf flying giant eagles ( OK so maybe they are The  Hobbit) things) which are both on display at the airport.

We pick up the car RAV4 as advertised and Blue! It was doing a weird thing of automatically braking as you drove down hills so we ended up picking upHaley and going BACK to the airport so we could ask them. Luckily it turns out they sold delicious bagels and coffee at the airport. So breakfast was also sorted.  Wellington has to have the narrowest roads and the most blind corners of anywhere I have ever been. Luckily Matt took over the driving. I don’t know how the Armageddon trucks and busses aren’t just constnaly in accidents.

We had been warned that parking around Weta was difficult and we allowed extra time. But actually it was pretty near impossible and we hadn’t allowed enough. Turned out we had booked near school pick up time and there is a school there so that might have made it worse. And all the parking is just on the side of the aforementioned narrow roads.

Once we got there though Weta was awesome. They do mention that LOTR was 20 years ago (it really doesn’t feel that long) and that they have done a thing or two since. But the highlights were still getting to hold a fighting weight elvish sword, a Gimli walking axe (foam) and Orcrist.

The gift shop was pretty good too - kept finding just one more thing.

So we did the workshop tour - which includes windows into the actual workshop( no people making swiards on the day we were there) and an actual model maker to talk to - although none of us really had anything to say. Then a tour of the miniatures studio - which I KNEW was Thunderbirds but hoped really wasn’t. Then. a sculpting workshop that also included a room with lots of movie artifacts and was where we got to hold the weapons.

The miniatures were really interesting in terms of all the odds and ends that end up in them to represent other things. Apparently someone wrote in to the creator of the original Thunderbirds to complain about the lemon squeezer used to represent a jet engine. That became a challenge to incorporate as many lemon squeezers as possible into the miniature sets. I got to slide the pool back on the Tracy house.

The modeling workshop was also lots of fun. We all came out with a little head modeled on a base of aluminium foil. There was one woman in the group who just didn’t stop talking though. Made me nervous in case sometimes that is me. But she had something to say to EVERYTHING and then there was another woman who was that, “I can top that story.” person. It would have been nice to get some more instruction about modeling rather than hearing more than I wanted to know about that woman’s family.

But anyway lots of fun.

We have dinner at a delicious Mexican restaurant with three varieties of chili sauce. Paired with a rose sangria. Delish!