One of the great attractions in Wellington, of course, is the Weta Workshop. This is the special effects studio made famous by the Lord of the Rings movies, which has gone on to work on a number of other different projects and franchises since then. They have also branched out into other types of specialty work. For example, if you happen to want a life-size King Kong statue for your backyard (that’s about thirty feet tall, in case you’re curious), then they’re the company that can fix you up.

Since the Weta studio is located in Miramar, a part of Wellington far from the CBD, they run a shuttle service to take you there. Along the way, our guide pointed out movie-related sites, including movie theaters and some of the other Weta facilities, such as giant soundproof stages and the world’s largest bluescreen. We also passed by some of the mansions on Mount Victoria, which are built on such a steep hillside that they have installed private gondolas for access. (Maybe they’re the people who can afford to buy the life-sized King Kong statues?)

The Weta tour is entertaining and informative. They gave us a close-up look at a number of original movie props, including the Witch-King of Angmar (that’s the head Nazgul) in full regalia. Unfortunately they don’t allow any pictures in that section of the tour, so being law-abiding citizens we have nothing to show you from it. The pictures we do have are from the latter half of the tour where they were allowed, and from some of the displays in the gift shop and lobby area.

A feature of the tour that was particularly interesting: they included several Weta model-builders at work, who showed off their work and explained it to us. The second of these had us all try our hand at sculpting with aluminum foil, which is apparently a very versatile medium and used by the professionals for some of their work. We didn’t have the time to try anything too fancy, but did put together somewhat recognizable versions of a turtle and a dragon head.

As a good-bye gift they took our picture with a fancy camera rig and some borrowed movie props, and dropped us into one of several predesigned backgrounds.

For the afternoon we visited a nature restoration project called Zealandia in Wellington. The goal of this preserve is to restore its condition to something as close as possible to what New Zealand was like before the introduction of exotic species by Europeans. Obviously, they cannot replace species that have gone extinct, but through careful work they have brought back many that were locally extinct or critically endangered. They have also worked to bring in as many native plants as possible, so that the animals have access to the habitat for which they were evolved. The result is a vibrant and beautiful outdoor environment. We felt a little like we had walked into a real-life Jurassic Park — except without any man-eating animals.

When we say “animals” we mostly mean birds. There were only two species of mammals in New Zealand prior to its discovery by Europeans; both are bats. There are some lizards, and insects of course, but birds had diversified to fill most of the ecological niches available on the island. Although the largest (the moa) are now gone, along with many others, quite a few species still remain. The air of the sanctuary was filled with birdcalls at all times, and nature photographers with scary-big camera lenses stalk the trails. We are far from professional, but still managed to bag a few photos ourselves.

On the way home we took the cable car together. After a stroll back through the city past the famous splash-bucket fountain on Cuba Street, we had a delicious dinner at the Ethiopian restaurant downstairs from our lodging. We wish we had one of these at home! Dessert (back at the excellent gelato place from the night before) was ube+coconut flavored vegan ice cream and cookie, which was a hit with Susannah. Ube is a type of yam native to the Philippines. Yes, it’s really that purple!