Wellington, New Zealand

We are now in Windy Wellington, the capital of NZ. (yes, more than Chicago!!)
Susan decided to go to Weta Workshop and the location sites for Lord of the Rings today.

A little History: Wētā FX, formerly known as Weta Digital, is a digital visual effects and animation company based in Miramar, Wellington. It was founded by Peter Jackson, Richard Taylor, and Jamie Selkirk in 1993. Weta FX is best known for making props, weapons, armour, costumes, miniatures, and more for The Lord of the Rings motion picture trilogy as well as King Kong, and Avatar, and it's groundbreaking  work on Rise of the Planet of the Apes, The Avengers, Prometheus, and The Hobbit trilogy.

The small town had such a friendly, laid-back, unassuming presence as we drove through the production lots that it was hard to imagined compared to the glitz and glamore of Hollywood. It was also great to then go on location sites to the Outer Hobit Shrine.

Morris enjoyed a site seeing tour to visit a 360-degree overlook of the city. Then, on to visit the Te Papa National Museum, where they had a very moving exhibit of ANZAC forces fighting in Gallipoli. The exhibit centered around 5 giant sized scenes that reflected the horror of that battle.

After lunch, we met up again to explore the city (including the Beehive Gov. Building), road the Wellington Red Cable tram, and strolled through the City Botanical Gardens.

We ended the day with a special performance by our very talented Cruise Director, Aoibhionn O'Neill.Read more