In this article, which is my 3rd article about the city of Wellington, the subject I will talk about will be the traces of Middle-earth in the city and my trip to the shooting location of a scene in the movie The Lord of the Rings – The Fellowship of the Ring for the fans of Middle-earth. As a Middle-earth fan, while doing research on places to visit in New Zealand, I always look to see if there is a place for the Lord of the Rings series 🙂 Since Wellington is the birthplace of the Lord of the Rings movie, there are many items related to the movie in the city. In fact, the city was even given the title of Middle of Middle Earth. In addition, Wellington is also called Wellywood due to the successful films it has produced in recent years.
As soon as you arrive at Wellington Airport, you start encountering symbols and characters from Middle Earth. When you get off the plane and proceed towards the inside of the airport, you will see the giant eagles flying above you and even Gandalf sitting on Gwaihir with his shining staff in his hand when you pass to the part where the cafes are. 🙂 Isn't it amazing!
In another part, you can see the dragon Smaug from the movie The Hobbit dozing off among the rocks. They made the model of Smaug quite realistic, even opening his eyes from time to time and looking around as if he could feel someone coming to collect their gold.
One of the must-see places in Wellington for Middle-earth fans is Weta Cave, the building of the Weta Company, which makes the visual effects, weapons and costumes of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit Series, which is open to visitors.
Weta Company consists of two sub-companies, Weta Digital and Weta Workshop. Weta Digital prepares visual effects for films, and Weta Workshop produces materials such as clothing, accessories, weapons, swords and shields for films. The make-up, costumes, swords, shields, etc. in The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit Series are all made by the artists at Weta Workshop. It is a company that has produced successful works for the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit Series, as well as for Contact, Van Helsing, King Kong, District 9, Avatar, The Planet of The Apes series and many other solid films. By the way, the source of the company's name is a giant insect called Weta, which lives only in New Zealand, and the company's logo is also the same insect. One of the 3 founders of the company is Peter Jackson, the director of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit Series.