I know I'm about a month late, but I wanted to finish my posts on the rest of gorgeous New Zealand.
On February 17th, Aaron and I took our rental car, Tui and hit the road from our apartment in Auckland to Wellington, which is at the very bottom of the North Island. Here's a map:
Exactly halfway to Wellington, we wanted to stop at Tongariro National Park just to snap a few pictures of Mt. Ngauruhoe, which is the volcano used as Mt. Doom in the LOTR movies (they embellished the lava part obviously, but it was chosen because it's the most "volcano-like" with it's perfectly symmetric, conical shape).
Drumroll please!!! Are. You. Ready. To see Mt. Doom??!
DRDRDRDDDDRDRRRDRDRDRDR (that's my best drumroll):
BAM! Oh yea, did I forget to mention it was super rainy and so foggy we couldn't see ANYTHING?? Oops, should've mentioned that. So, this is where it's supposed to be and it's obviously there somewhere, but we couldn't see a damn thing due to the weather. Darn!
There are actually 3 giant volcanoes in the national park, but we couldn't see ANY OF THEM! Grr! At least it was only a pit stop and totally on the way, so not a huge waste of time, but quite a bummer. Here's a pic I found online to satiate your thirst:
and it's appearance in the movie:
You can see they added a bit of dramatic flare to it.
Aaron took a video, so it's not a complete waste.
So, we didn't see Mt. Doom, but I did think the grassland was pretty:
Pics of the drive (it was 8 hours total, btw):
Random shoe fence that stretched as far as the eye could see:
We made it to Wellington!
My man is a trooper!
It was still dumping rain when we got there, so we found parking near our hostel, checked in and dropped our bags off before bidding Tui farewell and returning her to the Thrifty car rental. Tui, you have been so good to us and we will miss you dearly! We didn't need a car for the couple days we were in Wellington, so why pay for it (and parking)? In a couple days, we have to take a ferry to the South Island, where we will receive a new car anyway (rental companies don't allow you to take the cars between islands, you drop one off, take the ferry and pick up the next one on the other side).
Some pics of our hostel:
It was old fashioned, but really nice. The decor reminded us of the Hotel Cortez in American Horror Story. It was a huge hostel with a giant commercial-sized kitchen (for guest use), a restaurant and a bar.
We were pretty tired and it was way rainy, so we just hung around the hostel bar for a few hours until bedtime. We had a full day Lord of The Rings tour scheduled for the next day, so we wanted to be ready.
Day 2
We woke up early, got ready and walked to our meeting point. It was a perfect day, no rain in sight! Lucky us!
We walked into the tourist building right next to our pickup point and ran into this handsome fella:
Spooky.
We caught our bus and were off!
Quick disclaimer: if you're not a LOTR fan, you might not be all that interested in this tour. Aaron and I aren't die-hard, speak-Elvish kind of fans, but we thoroughly enjoy the movies and any movie-making process, so this was right up our alley.
Our first stop was this random construction site, also known as the site of Helm's Deep:
Believe it or not, this site, about 10 minutes outside of Wellington city, right on the side of the freeway, is where they built the exterior set of Helm's Deep.
Throughout the tour, our guide was showing us video clips from the movies (in the van) and pictures, so we could see the sets, how the different sites were utilized and in which scenes they appeared. It honestly really helped me get into it because I'm a really visual person with NOT a lot of imagination, so seeing a random field isn't enough for me to get into the movie making spirit.
Here's Helm's Deep:
and here's the site and picture together (try to visualize it, yes, I know it's hard):
I think this is kinda cool, but I wish they could've left the sets in place for fans to visit, like Hobbiton. However, Peter Jackson's agreement with the city (and basically the whole country) was to leave the land how he found it, so everything was demolished and put back to the way it was when they finished. Thank God, this heap of dirt was left here for millions of people to enjoy when they drive by. Thanks a lot Wellington!
Fun fact: before they tore it completely down, they used it as the base for Minas Tirith and just built that city on top of the Helm's Deep set. Pretty nifty.
Next up: Harcourt Park AKA Isengard
We drove anouther 10-15 minutes through an unassuming residential neighborhood until we got the Harcourt Park. It looks like a completely normal park with a giant field until we watched some video clips and saw some pictures:
The actual tower thing was CGI, so they just had Gandalf ride a horse through this field with a giant blue screen in place where they were going to computer generate the tower. If you look really closely, the trees match.
Next scene, when Gandalf and Saruman are walking through the gardens of Isengard:
We actually got to recreate this scene (staffs and all), which was so dumb, but really funny:
Now you totally see it, right?? No? Me neither, but it's true! This is the spot!
Next stop: Hutt River AKA where Brego (horse) saves Aragorn (hot human).
We drove about 5 minutes through a residential area and walked in between 2 houses and around someone's backyard, where they had 2 mini horses! We had to do a horse selfie:
Too fricken cute!
Okay, we're at the river!
Here are some pics to jolt your memory:
Hutt River:
That rock formation behind us is in the movie, so that's how you know the exact spot where he laid. Aaron played Aragorn (I did NOT play the horse, thank you very much):
Bravo baby!
Let's keep seeing random sights that at one point in time were something awesome, but are now just empty fields. Woo!
Next up: Kaitoke National Park AKA Rivendell
Now, exterior shots of Rivendell were CGI, but they did build some interior sets at Kaitoke (well, as interior as they could be, it seems elves have an aversion to windows and privacy).
We drove about 30 minutes and once we got there we had a picnic lunch of Subway sandwiches. Okay, so after the whole Jared child molestation thing came out and we found out Subway knew about it and did nothing, we decided to boycott all Subways for life because we just couldn't in good conscience support a company like that. We were totally unaware the provided lunch would be Subway and we figured it was already paid for, so our hands were tied. We set aside our morals and ate Subway...and it was delicious. Damn, did I miss me some Subway! However, we are back on the wagon and back to boycotting Subway again, so don't tempt me!!
After eating, we took a short walk into the forest:
Love that!
This part was kinda confusing. They pointed to a bunch of different sections of forest and said different sets were build in each one, but it was impossible to visualize it even with the pictures because it's seriously just trees and forest, so I'll just show you the pictures of what sets were here:
Here's the same tree, if that helps:
Just take their word for it that all this was here at some point. Here's a pic of all the sets:
and a map:
They left one thing:
So cool!
Then this happened:
Yup, Aaron donned the wig and did the cheesy pose too, but he didn't want me to post the pictures. Take my word for it, they are epic! He'll actually probably not be thrilled I posted this one, so let's just keep it hush hush, okie dokie?
After our Rivendell tour AKA a walk through a random forest with a costume change, we checked out the suspension bridge nearby:
Very high up and super fun!
Then it was off to the next portion of the tour!
We drove back to Wellington to drop people off (who only paid for half the tour) and pick people up (who only paid for the 2nd half of the tour) and then drove about 15 minutes outside of town to a park above the city. Saw some cool stuff on the way:
They actually call Wellington Wellywood because a lot of movies are made here, Peter Jackson's production company is here, as well as all the Weta offices (pictures of that later), so this remote part of the world actually gets a lot of action.
We made it to Mt. Victoria Park:
The park itself is really pretty:
They filmed a few scenes from The Fellowship of The Ring here.
and of course, we had to reenact them:
It's so stupid, but I'm not gonna lie, we were so into it. Our guide had a bag full of props, making the experience that much more real.
Eww, cicada skins:
They were everywhere!
Here's a live one:
Here's a weta (which is what the special effects company is named after):
These are native to New Zealand and can get HUGE! Like bigger than your hand huge. Uggg!
Back to our tour!
There was a second in Fellowship where the ring wraith was at the top of this hill, looking for the hobbits:
This is where the 4 hobbits fell when running from the ring wraith:
Here's where they hid in the roots of a tree (the tree was fake):
Remember Frodo says "Get off the road!" and they jump into that spot in the tree. Guess what we did next? Yup:
We have no shame. I couldn't find a picture that represents our exact pose, but it's real, watch the movie.
Aaron got to hold the precious:
You can't really tell, but it's got the markings and everything.
Okay, now onto the really cool part of the tour: Weta.
Weta Digital is a visual effects company encompassing Weta Workshop, Weta Productions, Weta Collectibles and Park Road Post Production (Peter Jackson's production company). These 4 distinct offices together have almost everything you need to make a motion picture. Weta is in a remote location, compared to the rest of the world, but it's one of the top 5 visual effects companies in the world. Co-owned by Peter Jackson, Weta has done all the visual effects for all the LOTR and Hobbit movies, including making props, costumes, sets, sound effects, CGI and post production. They've won multiple Academy Awards for not only LOTR, but also King Kong and Avatar. They've also worked on movies such as: The Chronicles of Narnia, District 9, Planet of The Apes, X-Men: First Class, Chappie, Furious 7 and the new Batman vs. Superman, just to name a few.
We drove by Peter Jackson's production company, Park Road Productions on (you guessed it) Park Road:
We also went by Stone Street Studios, where they have huge sound stages (also owned by Peter Jackson) including the "Kong Stage," used in King Kong and known to be one of the largest sound stages.
Giant green screen:
Apparently, Peter Jackson's currently doing a movie with Scarlett Johansson and they might have been there at that very moment. Ohhhh!! Ahhhhh!
On our way to Weta Cave, which is basically a gift shop/small museum then into Weta Workshop for a tour to see all the cool props/costumes and how they make them. If you couldn't already tell, all these studios and all of Weta are within blocks of each other.
We're here!
They like their buildings to somewhat blend in, so as not to attract too much attention, so most of them don't look like much from the outside. The untrained eye probably wouldn't even notice if they drove past some of them. Weta Cave is a little more flashy because it's an actual tourist spot:
Oh no! Not a purple nurple!
Let's check out Weta Cave:
Twinsies:
The props here are pretty much for serious collectors because nothing was cheap. A magnet was $10.
Our tickets for the Weta Workshop tour:
As far as the Weta Workshop tour, the pictures end here:
They don't allow photos inside because a lot of the props on display aren't owned by them, but the movie studios, so they could get sued for allowing pictures. I was so bummed because it was the COOLEST place EVER, with tons of LOTR props, as well as memorabilia from a bunch of other movies. We even got to peak through a window into the prop department, where this guy was sharpening a crazy sword. We also got to watch a guy making figurines out of clay for an upcoming Fraggle Rock board game! He's planning on doing The Labyrinth next. He hopes to do a wall of figurines for all Jim Henson characters, which I think will be awesome!
They explained to us the entire process of making a prop, using a giant gun from District 9 as an example. They explained making a model first on the computer and then once approved, making an actual model and once approved, making a mold with wood and silica (in order to make many of the same prop) and then making the prop itself out of a strong, but lightweight plastic and then painting and designing it according to the needs of the director. Obviously, it's way more complex than I'm explaining it, but that's the gist. They also make the same prop out of real materials (steel or whatever) for close-up shots, so they make legit weapons (guns that fire, sharp swords, bows and arrows, you name it, they make it). They also utilize 3-D printers for some projects (they just did one at the Te Papa museum (we went the day after this)). They had animatronic props and showed all the wiring inside and what it takes to get something to move, blink or light up. They had walls of shields and different arrows and axes and wigs, it was nuts! They even had the same props in different sizes for LOTR because things were supposed to look normal sized among the humans and elves, but large next to the hobbits, so they had to make every prop twice to fit that illusion. It's just crazy how much work they put into everything! They had casts of all the actors faces, so they could make prosthetics for their faces (most prosthetics only last for a few uses, so they have to make many of them for any given film). It was so interesting. If you have any interest in how movies are made and/or special effects, I highly recommend a trip to Weta. It was so much fun!
Then our tour was over and we got dropped off back in the city. We wandered around, since the weather was so nice:
We ran into a salsa lesson:
Aaron found a friend:
Well, that was Wellington and our LOTR Tour! Wellington is a fantastic city, we liked it even more than Auckland! What an amazing day! Stick around because the next day we went to Te Papa, which is the most famous museum in New Zealand.
Awesome such funny pics!
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