More of Wellington

Well, today I took a bus journey out to Miramar to the WETA cave. Weta workshop created loads of the special effects for Lord of the Rings and I was almost pantwettingly excited about going out there to see it. But when they say it’s a mini museum they weren’t kidding. My studio flat was bigger!

There were loads of props from the movies, and you got to watch a film about the effects they have created in LOTR, the Narnia series, and loads of other films, however there are so many confidentiality laws that govern what they show you, even years after the films are made, that they can’t show you everything you’d like to know, or show you around their workshops. And I like to know how things work.

It was enough, though, to make me want to work for them... how exciting it would be to create props, or miniature sets, and models for different projects, it really was the closest thing I’ve had to a religious experience for a while. I asked if there were any jobs going and they said they get over 1000 email applications per week.

They had a great Gollum though, and an Urucai, and you could even buy a copy of the “one ring”.. Which was really tempting....but it was only I 9 ct and over $500. ridic!

So then I went back and got the famous Wellington cable car to the top of one of the hills and had a stomp around the botanical gardens up there, but it was really really windy and despite how beautiful it looked, it was pretty chilly.

Saw the “sundial of human involvement” where you stand on the date and your shadow points to the time... it was bang on too!!

This dome on top of the hill contains an Astrolabe, which is an instrument to measure the altitude of stars and planets. The astrolabe was used during the International Geophysical Year (1957-58) to measure the wobbling of the earth on it’s axis. This involved measurement s of the stars over several months enabling them latitude of the site to be determined precisely. As a result, the cent re of this dome is known more accurately worldwide than any other point in New Zealand.

I saw around the cable car museum too, as there are loads of private cable cars in Wellington because of the hilliness, and people are now getting them installed so they don’t have to constantly schlep their shopping up stairs to their houses on the hillsides, in fact there are over 400 private ones in Wellington alone!

Some are massive, and some little more than a glorified Stena, however, still cool!!! I liked the old “Red Rattler” that they used to run before the newer models in 1976 – look at these outside seats, set at an angle (the hill it climbs is 1:5 gradient) and the leather straps for the passengers to hold on to during their journey!

On my way home I had my eye drawn to the library, in think you can see why!

And there was this guy practising his parkour against one of the modern sculptures they have outside the town hall

Wellington is a pretty funky town as it goes, I rather like it here - it's certainly beautiful, full of fun and art, and friendly people.  Now all I have to do is get a job at WETA!