Wellington, December 2003

From December 4 to 9, I spent six days and five nights in Wellington, earth's southernmost capital and the only capital in the roaring fourties latitudes. As the movie The Return of the King, being the third and final part of The Lord of the Rings, had premiered in Wellington on December 1, the entire city was still in an amazing Lord of the Rings frenzy. Taking part in this incredible atmosphere and merchandise, I watched the extended version of the first part once more in the premiere cinema, Embassy Theatre, and also bought some Lord of the Rings posters. The following pictures might give you some idea of how much the Lord of the Rings premiere influenced Wellington, and what other things this vibrant and beautiful city has to offer.

The small plane (tail number: ZK-JSZ) with which I flew to Wellington.

Welcome to Middle-earth: Gollum statue at the airport.

Cave troll on the town hall (?)

You saw it for 3 hours, now see it for 3 weeks. -- Middle Earth is New Zealand.

Windy Wellington

"Te Papa", New Zealand's national museum

Inflated dinosaur fighting with the wind (outside Te Papa)

Earth's largest known ammonite from Jurassic times, 208-146 million years ago. However, a much larger (3.5 tons, 1.95m wide) one from the age that followed Jurassic, namely Cretacious, has been found in Seppenrade (Germany). In my opinion, Te Papa's caption of the exhibit is a bit misleading.

One of the ten cannons that were on James Cook's ship, the Endeavour. It was thrown overboard along with five other cannons and additional ballast when the Endeavour hit a sand bank on 11 June 1770, but was recovered from the ocean and cleaned almost 200 years later.

Huge model of Barad-Dur, Sauron's stronghold in Mordor, that was used during the filming of the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Lord of the Rings - flags along the path of the premiere parade on December 1.

A ringwraith on the rooftop of Embassy Theatre, where the premiere took place.

Me in front of Embassy Theatre, with two newly bought Lord of the Rings posters and tickets for tonight's show of the first part.

Shiny men's toilet in Embassy Theatre.

Dunharrow to Minas Tirith: 8 days by haunted paths
- or -
60 minutes by Air New Zealand

Osgiliath to Mount Doom: 8 days following my precious
- or -
60 minutes by Air New Zealand

NZ post advert

Almost all tourists staying in Worldwide Backpackers in Wellington come from England, Germany or the United States of America.

Information about the silver fern - in parliament.

A gift from Weta Workshop (special effects, costume and model creators for Lord of the Rings) to Helen Clark, New Zealand's prime minister. It displays a scene from "The Fellowship of the Ring", and the inscription reads: "Helen, thank you for joining our Fellowship as we journey into Middle-earth together. Weta Workshop 2003".