New Zealand is well known for its beautiful scenery that's used in many tv shows and movies, most famously for Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit. It is also home to some of the best movie production and support companies in the world, and these companies are all clustered around Wellington, making it one of the top movie centers of the world. The most famous among them, and in large part the reason the city has developed such a reputation, is Weta. Weta began as a props/special effects company founded by Richard Taylor, Peter Jackson and Jamie Selkirk. In the beginning they did a lot of special effects for gory horror movies and the Hercules and Xena TV shows, but now they're the premier company in the business, having spread to digital effects, statues and figurines and being famous for their work on films like Lord of the Rings, King Kong, Chronicles of Narnia, Avatar, Tin Tin, Planet of the Apes (the new one), and so on.
There's a point in talking about all this, as my goal for the day was to visit the Weta Cave and Workshop. I made something of a mistake in walking to the place instead of taking the bus. It's technically not in Wellington but in Miramar, and while it didn't look too far on the map, the route I took along the coast ended up taking quite awhile and was made more unpleasant by the sun and heat. I'm pretty stubborn about walking places once I start though, and eventually made it to my goal.
There's a point in talking about all this, as my goal for the day was to visit the Weta Cave and Workshop. I made something of a mistake in walking to the place instead of taking the bus. It's technically not in Wellington but in Miramar, and while it didn't look too far on the map, the route I took along the coast ended up taking quite awhile and was made more unpleasant by the sun and heat. I'm pretty stubborn about walking places once I start though, and eventually made it to my goal.
The Weta Cave is a wonderland of props, reproductions, figurines and general film nerd-dom. It's a shop for the studio, and while the stuff is mostly way out of my price range it's still extremely cool to see. They also have a little theater showing a film about the company and the films it has worked on.
For the 20th anniversary of the company they also have been running special tours into the workshop. The tours are done by members of the actual props/special effects staff. They can't show what they're developing for new movies, but they walk you through how each of the different departments work and tell lots of stories about the things they've created for past films. There's also tons of weapons, models, figurines and all manner of weird props covering just about every inch of wall and ceiling space. Sadly the tour didn't allow photos, but you can get a general idea of the sort of things from the Cave pictures.
I decided to walk back to the hostel, but instead of following the coast I cut through the tunnel under the mountain which made it a much shorter walk.
2 comments:
Sounds like another interesting spot--both Wellington and Weta. I have no idea anymore at how up to date your blog is but I'm guessing you're a couple of weeks behind, which must mean you're leaving New Zealand soon?!
Normally I'd have no idea exactly, but I went to Weta on valentine's day, so almost exactly 2 weeks behind. Flying out in a week.
Post a Comment