We got to the Te Papa Museum around 9:50am, 10 minutes before opening. There were already 100 people crammed into the lobby. We had a quick coffee then went back to the lobby to wait for the staff to open the museum. When they did, there was a huge rush upstairs to the LOTR exhibition ticketing booth.
I picked up our tickets (and even got some money off the ticket price because we are YHA members) and we caught an elevator to the fifth floor, which was where the LOTR exhibition had been set up. We walked in … and exclaimed “Wow!” as we looked around in awe at displays. Most of the displays were of costumes and props. The detailing in the costumes was amazing. On the extended DVD, the artists and actors all talk about the detail in the costumes and how that helped them portray their characters. I can see what they were talking about now. For example, the costume department could have just drawn designs on the leather items and it would have looked good. Instead, they actually pressed and carved the designs into the leather. Similarly, they could have just knitted wool into a chainmail pattern and painted it to look like metal links. Instead, they pressed 2.5-million metal links and hooked them together one link at a time to make full suits of chainmail.
Other displays demonstrated how they achieved some of the special effects. For example, they showed how they used forced perspective and scale models to make the hobbits look so small. You could sit on a replica of Gandalf’s cart to see how they filmed Gandalf and Frodo riding into Hobbiton together.
Some of the most fascinating displays were the scale models or “bigatures” of places like Orthanc and Minas Tirith. Again, the level of detail was amazing. You would swear you were looking at a real tower or town. The marquettes and full-scale models of monsters like the cave troll were also so detailed you’d swear they were alive. They even had a small motor moving the cave troll’s jaw up and down slightly, which made you think he was breathing. (By the way, the cave troll is anatomically correct. Poor guy didn’t inherit much in the way of family jewels.)
Many of the displays had TV screens next to them, and you could use buttons to select short video clips of people like Peter Jackson or Richard Taylor demonstrating how they chose locations, interpreted the book, created props, and so on. The clips were different from those available on the extended DVDs, so it was really exciting to watch the clips then turn to the left or right and see the actual costume, prop, or bigature.
We spent about two hours in the exhibit, then went to the LOTR exhibit shop. I really wanted a t-shirt with the silver tree of Gondor on it but, once again, the t-shirts were so small there was no hope in hell I’d ever fit into one. I swear, the labels on the t-shirts say XL but they’re only M. Even Mom is having a hard time finding a t-shirt that will fit and she normally wears an M or L. So, instead I bought a book and a hat. Sigh.
We had lunch at the museum and went up to the fourth floor to look at the Maori exhibits. We were expecting them to be much more extensive and educational. We spent two hours in the exhibits but could have covered them in much less time.
We left the museum around 3pm and walked back to the hostel. We went across the street to the New World market and once again it was a zoo. We pushed and shoved our way through the aisles until we’d gathered our four or five items, then queued with about 100 other people in the express check out lanes.
When we got back to the hostel I saw a young English fellow that I’d talked to briefly in the Nelson hostel. He’d had a great time kayaking in Abel Tasman Park, but at some point during the Interislander ferry trip to Wellington he’d fallen asleep and someone had nicked his wallet. He’d spent the entire day on the phone trying to cancel his cards and get new ones. We offered him some money so he could go out and get something to eat but he said he was okay, that he would somehow be getting a new credit card within the hour.
We had dinner then went upstairs and repacked our bags because they’ve gotten somewhat disorganized over the past few weeks. Then we watched the remainder of Sideways and went to bed.
This morning we’ll catch the tram up the mountain and explore the Botanical Gardens. At 5:30pm the shuttle will swing by and take us to the airport for our flight to Auckland. Our flight home departs Auckland tonight. If you include the layovers, it will take over 30 hours to get from Auckland to Victoria. However, because we’re crossing the International Date Line we’ll depart at midnight tonight and arrive at 2:30pm tomorrow. Funny, eh?
We’re both sad to be leaving New Zealand. We’ll have to come back and spend more time here.
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