Day 28 Whakapapa to Wellington and Weta Cave

Day 28 Whakapapa to Wellington and Weta Cave

Today began as a bit of a travel day. We followed the ‘Desert Road’ south, getting fantastic views of Mount Doom and the Tongariro Alpine Crossing that we had trekked yesterday, then watched as the landscape changed to green rolling hills split by rocky gorges – one of which was used in The Lord of the Rings…..I’m beginning to sense a theme here! We stopped at a few small towns along the way, most notably: Taihape (Gumboots capital of the world…) for a delicious cake and coffee…and Bulls (“No udder place is like it” – the pharmacy is ‘indespensibull’, the town hall is ‘sociabull’, the café is ‘delectabull’ and the police station is ‘constabull’….). We passed Waikanae and the beautiful beaches of the ‘Hibiscus Coast’ where many north islanders retire – and viewed the nature reserve of Kapiti Island just offshore. We then drove into the attractive capital city of Wellington.

Wellington is on a major fault line – and I was quite surprised to see so many homes and businesses clinging to hillsides, just waiting for the next earthquake.  The first two things we saw were: 1) Victoria Park – where yet another scene of Lord of the Rings was filmed (the bit where Frodo and friends were hiding under the tree roots from the ringwraith) and 2) the Beehive which is the new government building that looks exactly as it sounds…..

We checked into our harbourside hotel and split off depending upon what we wanted to do with our one afternoon in the city.  Rob and I decided to begin with the Weta Cave and workshop. Our guides drove us out to the suburb where the workshop is located – and we then said goodbye to Clark who leaves us here – now Nicole is on her own.  We explored the Weta mini-museum and shop, where there was a book signing for one of the ‘behind the scenes’ books and then saw a film about the history of the workshop and company…We decided to take the workshop tour as well….guns and prawns from the film District 9, Prince Caspian’s castle, make up, weapons and armour from Lord of the Rings, huge models of the 3 trolls from The Hobbit, the Green Goblin from Spiderman 2 and characters from Tin Tin and Avatar….as well as the equipment and materials that created them….3D printers and CNC cutters, plasticine and computers….and two artists at work.  We also saw some of the models for the new Thunderbirds series – not out until February…so no photos allowed! It was all very cool – and Rob was a very happy boy! 

We returned to the city centre by taxi….the driver showed us a few other sights - - including a roundabout with the city’s main cricket ground in the middle of it. We spent the next two hours at the stunning Te Papa museum…..particularly memorable were the hologram play describing the Maori discovery of the island, the full Maori maure, the earthquake simulation, the biome gardens walk and the NZ Air exhibition that included a demonstration of virtual reality headsets being tested for future inflight entertainment.

When the museum closed, at 6, we walked down to the harbour and then along Courtney – lined with bars, restaurants and cinemas (including the one where all Peter Jackson’s films are premiered..) and had dinner at a ‘retro bar’ and bistro – very good it was, too – before heading to the hotel and bed…..an early start tomorrow for the ferry ride to South Island, known as ‘the mainland’ because it is approximately 4 rugby pitches larger in area than North Island.