Welling, Weta, Wedding

10 years ago I married my best friend. Our wedding was great fun and held in a super cool location. We got married in the rotunda of the Blackhawk Auto Museum and our reception was held in their showroom filled with exotic and classic cars. I often wish that we could do it all over again because it all goes by in such a blur, but I wouldn’t trade that day for anything.

On our first date we both talked about our dream vacations. Europe was at the top of both lists so that is where we spent our honeymoon. Australia/New Zealand was second on our list, but for very different reasons. I wanted to visit for the animals (kangaroos, koalas, etc.) and Bill wanted to visit because New Zealand was where they filmed the Lord Of The Rings movies. He figured if we got as close as Australia for me then we could definitely make New Zealand work. After our honeymoon, we decided to make Australia a goal for our 10 year wedding anniversary. That seemed like a lifetime away back in 2014. 


The Pandemic certainly changed things for travel and we didn’t know if this trip was still a realistic goal. We got an email from Carnival in the dredges of the pandemic with a deal that we just couldn’t turn down. $1500 out the door for both of us on a 12 day cruise around New Zealand. Our goal when booking a cruise in particular is $100 a day per person (this includes lodging, food, entertainment, etc.) We immediately booked the deal and then put it to bed for the next 4 years. We were woefully unprepared for this trip and had to scramble at the end of 2023 to get things in order. Our flights cost more than we expected, but the lay flat seats made the trip enjoyable instead of grueling. Sydney was wonderful and we are so very glad that we got to spend some quality time there. 


Yesterday however, was the first of two ports that were extremely important to Bill. I titled this post as Wellington, Weta, Wedding because that is the only way that I could remember what day it was. Wellington is the name of the port, Weta is the name of the place where we did our tour, and we were to visit on our 10 year wedding anniversary. 


We docked in Wellington at just about 8:00 a.m. Our tour wasn’t until noon so we knew that we didn’t have to rush off the ship. It was actually a good thing that we didn’t because the lines were super long and there was a bit of hassle to leave. We calmly waited our turn and made it to City Center by 10:15 a.m. From there we needed to hit a bank to grab some local currency and headed off to find our bus station. After some confusion we were able to make it and only had to wait a few minutes for our bus. On our bus ride we encountered two remarkably charming aspects of New Zealand culture. The first was that the stops are called out in English first and then in Māori. The second is that everyone thanked the driver as they exited the bus. It was so sweet and we made sure to follow suit.


The bus ride was about 40 minutes and took us to a place called Weta Workshop. This is the special effects studio that is famous for a number of big movies, but none more important than Lord Of The Rings (at least to my husband). The building for Weta sits in a quiet residential neighborhood and you would know what it was if it weren’t for the giant trolls that stand guard outside of the building. And when I say giant….I mean GIANT! I will forever remember the giant smile that was pasted on my husband’s face as he willingly posed for pictures with those trolls. He absolutely hates having his picture taken so this was a big deal! After a few quick photos with the trolls, we headed inside to check in for our tour.


The main entrance of the gift shop is modeled after a Hobbit hole in The Shire. It was all very quaint. The first human face that we saw inside was a blonde young man whose name was Harry. He was very sweet and explained the process to us while checking us in. Harry was a big fan of Bill’s name (William Watts) and made sure that he knew it. 


Just inside the room where we met Harry there were statues of Gollum (my precious!), an Orc (from LOTR), artwork along all of the walls and several collectible pieces from various movies that the studio has worked on. We had to keep our heads on a swivel to make sure that we didn’t miss anything! From there we transitioned into the Weta gift shop and Bill eyes grew larger with every piece that he saw. 


We arrived about 30 minutes before our tour so we had plenty of time to browse the store and preplan our shopping wish list. As we were admiring the weapon replicas on the wall, Bill said to me that this was his second favorite February 22nd. His first was of course our wedding, but this day was absolutely his second favorite. At this point Harry found us again and we launched into a quick convo about the pieces on the wall. The two guys geeked out over the weapons and Harry quickly realized that he was talking to a super fan. I decided to explain to Harry that this was our 10th wedding anniversary and that Bill had mentioned it was his second favorite day. Harry was over the moon that we were able to make it down there on such an important day in our history. He left us to check on who our tour guide would be as he was headed out for lunch. He advised us that Mark (our tour guide) was the longest tenured employee of the guides and would take good care of us. We thanked him and headed out to wait for our tour. 


Just before our tour was called Harry appeared again. He handed over a little black bag and explained that he was moved by our story and wanted to give us a little gift. Inside of the bag was a coin that made from the original mold that was used for the coins in Smaug’s dragons hoard. That piece alone was enough to make Bill giddy. Harry also included a Weta workshop patch and a tea towel from the 20th Anniversary of the movie complete with gold markings. This towel isn’t even sold in stores, but Harry wanted us to have it. We couldn’t even articulate enough thanks for him. It was such a cool interaction.


Mark led us on our tour through the studio and he was a wonderful guide to have. He has worked at Weta for 15 years and has even appeared in the some of the movies that the studio have been a part of. He has also worked in some of the shops creating some of the effects for said movies. He was a wealth of knowledge that we couldn’t get enough of. Bill had many questions for him and it made for a well informed tour. There was so much to see that I almost can’t wrap my head around it all. We got to hold props from some of the movies, feel prosthetics and models of King Kong, along with meeting some of the many creators who work there. It was all super fascinating. 


We finished up the tour and hit the gift shop to buy lots of goodies. We did some damage for sure, but it actually wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. Harry made sure to check on us once more before we left. He was such a nice guy! If you are ever near Wellington, I advise you to go see him just because. I will certainly never forget him. We grabbed a ride share back to our scheduled meeting spot and were back on the ship with an hour to spare. In the end I am glad that we didn’t take the bus. We likely would have made it, but I wanted to err on the side of caution.


We ate a quick lunch on the Lido deck after dropping off our goodies. After that we headed back to our room to rest up before dinner. The walking from the tour seemed to be tougher than our workouts at the gym so the rest was welcomed. We hit the main dining room for dinner and it was a quiet evening. I splurged and got the lobster and filet since it was a special night. Totally worth it! Our friend John from Sydney also stopped by our table and dropped off a ball cap for our new Rugby team the Wests Tigers! The colors are orange and black which hurts my green and gold heart, but I am excited to have a new team to root for. Their team song is quite salty and I love it! I wish we have similar cultures with our sports teams, but maybe that can still happen. 


Following dinner we headed to our favorite bar to watch a new music group and they put on a great set! They even did a Pink Floyd medley which we have never heard on a cruise ship before! All in all, it was a great day and a wonderful way to spend our 10 year anniversary. 


There won’t be a post to recap today because it was a very slow day for us. I think the pace of the trip has officially hit us and we needed a lazy day. Our port stop was a short day 8:00 - 1:30 which is barely enough time to see anything so we booked a spa day instead. We both did a massage/facial and it was well worth it. Our spa attendant was from South Africa and she encouraged us to visit. It is already on our bucket list (although I won’t be going shark cage diving with Bill - he’s on his own for that), so we’ll have to see when we can make that happen. 


We probably won’t post again until after our next port which is Tauranga. This is the location where were be visiting filming sites from the LOTR movies. Bill is quite excited and said that he feels like a kid of Christmas Eve. He just wants it to be tomorrow already so he can go! 















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