Day 10a-Auckland: Weta workshops

Lindsay and I discussed what we wanted to do while in Auckland for the morning. We had tickets on the "Hop-on Hop-off" city bus service, which would leave from the Cruise Terminal and travel around Auckland to the many sights in the city. In the end we decided to get tickets to the Weta Workshops tour.
I got up early to watch as the ship passed into Auckland Harbour and it apparently got a "Royal" welcome as it was the first time into Auckland.
I heard there were some issues getting it into the harbour, as it is a very big ship, it may have actually bottomed out on the floor of the harbour.
We had breakfast and went to wait for our call for the bus.
The Weta workshops are right near the Skytower, boasting to be the tallest free-standing tower in the Southern Hemisphere.
Weta workshops are prop and costume making studios responsible for designing and building a lot of the creatures for films produced in NZ, most notably working with Peter Jackson on the Lord of the Rings films. We got a sneak peak of 3 different "concept" films from 3 different genres.
The first was a horror film, where we looked at makeup and costume prosthetics as well as creature props. They also had a horror slaughterhouse to go through; Lindz and Millie bypassed that one, but I went through.
Then the fantasy world, including an experience of being shrunk to the size of a pencil and how they produced props and vehicles using everyday items around the home. This included a visit to a filming miniature of a landscape for the fantasy film theorising what the earth would be like if dinosaurs did not die out. We tried our hands at building props and models for film, tracing sketches, using modelling clay and aluminium foil to build models.
Finally we looked at a science fiction concept of a robot from outta space that saved a primative tribe from a volcano hundreds of years ago which was found by a couple of archaeologists. It was an incredible and interactive experience, if a little rushed by the guide.
After Weta Workshops, we went our separate ways so I could got on my Harbour Bridge Climb, and Millie and Lindz could go to the zoo... but not before getting a photo in front of a giant Nutcracker in front of the Casino.Læs mere