The Weta Cave

Bus to Auckland, New Zealand

Beautiful weather continued. Yesterday, I had looked up the Weta Workshop, which had done the displays for the bug and Gallipoli exhibits at the museum. It turned out it’s based in Wellington and offers tours, so I signed us up for one at 11:00.

Our Uber driver was a dear sweet lady from Russia, who had fled Chechnya in the early nineties, and moved on from Germany when her family was offered residency in New Zealand. She told us how happy she is to be here. Her youngest son was born soon after arriving so is a full blooded Kiwi. It was neat to talk to her particularly after just reading about refugees to New Zealand yesterday at the National Museum.

On the face of it, the Weta Workshop seems like a small operation. There was a small gift shop and tour office known as the Weta Cave where we picked up tickets and also watched a movie about the company. Some may know that the Weta Workshop was responsible for the special effects in the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings trilogy, not to mention Avatar, District 9, and many other blockbusters. The special effects divisions of the company are divided into two main parts, the Weta Workshop, responsible for physical models, and Weta Digital, responsible for all computer generated effects.

The tour focused on the former, physical models. Our fantastic guide, showed us how the model makers create many movie props: first a master model is fabricated, then a silicone mold (typically in two halves) is created, and then each item -- gun, sword, mask etc -- is cast using a two part urethane. Ultimately, everything is painted by an incredibly talented group of artists. The painstaking work includes painting on simulated dirt, grime, and scratches needed for complete realism.

Hobbit feet

The second part of the tour focused on the miniature models often used in conjunction with computer animation. Even these days, it can be easier and cheaper to create a detailed scale model of a city, castle or spaceship than invest the time and money needed to create all detailed texture and lighting effects. We were taken into a warehouse containing the scale sets used for the remake of the New Zealand classic, The Thunderbirds -- five brothers, each with their own space ship that week after week make the earth safe for humanity.

Us in a full sized Thuderbirds cockpit

The models were awesome to look at. Unfortunately, no picture were allowed inside the workshops. It was particularly fun to see how ordinary household items were incorporated into the Thunderbirds models -- toilet paper rolls, ballpoint pens, computer fans, circuit boards, razors, vacuums etc. We were reminded of the Vunderland miniature train museum in Hamburg.

For the rest of the day, we got lunch at Fidel’s -- a Cuban restaurant appropriately on Cuba street -- then wandered back to the waterfront to watch people again jumping into the harbor. It's cool that there are no warning signs at the diving platforms. Apparently the liability laws are different here. The platform was intentionally built for diving, but people also used the pier railings and the top of the bathrooms to launch themselves into the water, some doing back flips from the 5m height. Dex and Kylie were happy to cool off jumping from the lower platforms.

No warning signs here

For the first time in a long time, our overnight accommodations would be a bus. Although I'm guessing the roads will be much better than in India or Vietnam, I'm not expecting to have a horizontal bed and probably not the best night's sleep ... at least not for me.

Wellington High Dive

Wellington, New Zealand -- Day 2

It was a beautiful sunny day in this capital city known for ferocious wind. Meg had noticed a pie shop a block away from the hotel, so we headed there for breakfast. Meat or vegetable pies are particularly popular in both Australia and New Zealand. Dex and I chose the bacon and egg while Meg and Kylie split a mince and cheese. The pie shop was advertised as the oldest in town, but after tasting my pie, I don't think it was the shop that was the oldest but the pies themselves!

In any event, the Lonely Planet said that the national museum, Te Papa, was a must see, and for that reason today would be a museum day. Just a few blocks away at the waterfront, Te Papa was within easy walking distance.

Shark street art

We did see a ton of neat stuff, and without much effort could have spent days there. Most of the museum is free and includes exhibits on New Zealand culture, history, art, and natural history. We also sprung for the special exhibit called the Bug Lab, created in partnership with Weta Workshop, a special effects studio in town supporting major films.

We spent the first part of the day learning about the geology and natural history of New Zealand. The incredible seismic activity here is caused by the fact that the country lies at the boundary of the Pacific and Australian tectonic plates. It was cool to see simulations of the Gondwana supercontinent breaking apart and shifting around during the last couple hundred million years. (Interestingly, the country was repeatedly referred to as its own separate continent.) It became clearer though why there are so few native land animals here. For much of the time since New Zealand separated from the other continents, it was mostly underwater.

The now extinct Moa and giant eagle

The rest of the day was spent in the bug lab. In it were displays showing the incredible behaviors and amazing abilities to build, fly or defend. One female wasp, for example, can sting a cockroach, make it follow it to a burrow, then lays an egg on it that hatches and eats the cockroach!  Many have incredible disguises, either looking like leaves, flower’s or other insects or animals.  

Meg and I also spent an hour in the Gallipoli war section. The battle for Gallipoli was a major offensive during WWI where primarily Ozzy and Kiwi troops fought against the Turks with the goal of capturing Constantinople. In the end, the campaign ended in a stalemate and the troops pulled out. Nevertheless, the losses were horrendous.

3X model of WWI soldier

England: Old Lion; New Zealand: Young Lion

Model of Gallipoli war camp

On the way out of the museum, we saw some people jumping off a platform near the waterfront into an pool-sized section of the harbor. Kylie was a trooper and was ready to give it a try. Once on top of the five meter platform, the cold water temperature was not the biggest concern.

After educating ourselves and a little jumping excitement, we were ready for a quiet evening back at the hotel.

To the North Island

To Wellington, New Zealand

The mist and clouds were back this morning, so I was pretty well soaked by the time my half hour run was done. We gave my Mom and De Ann a call. Mom (or Grandma) was delighted with the purple scarf that Kylie had sent home with Aunt De Ann. This in fact was the scarf Kylie had first started way back in England and had just finished a couple days ago with De Ann’s patient guidance.

Ready to go?

Picton marina

Since our ferry to the North Island gateway of Wellington wouldn't leave until 2:30, it wasn't until 10:00 that we wandered out of the campground. Without a pressing commitment, we tend not to move very fast. Afterwards we got a bite to eat at one of the excellent cafe’s in town right near the harbor. With an hour and a half before check in time, we took advantage of the little putt-putt golf course by the ferry terminal to occupy ourselves. It would rude for me not to point out that I handily beat the completion (Meg claims to have had an inferior putter!)

The ferries between the North and South Islands are huge and run frequently. The three hour ride went by quickly as we opted to watch Moana in the small, 20 person theater downstairs in the kids area. We had talked about seeing it in the past, but never had a chance. Given the Pacific Islander theme, New Zealand seemed like a good place. We had heard mixed reviews, so we were happily impressed.

Wellington is definitely the largest city we've seen so far with an impressive bay. We caught an Uber taxi to the Cambridge Hotel, which has apparently been housing guests since the late 1800's. Today, however, walking in the front door takes you into a betting parlor as the current lobby has been pushed farther back, accessible from the side street. We finished off the day with a tasty Thai food dinner and a quiet evening reading and playing cards at the hotel.

Long Ride to Picton

To Picton, New Zealand

We were up relatively early this morning for our lengthy bus ride to Picton. The ride was much longer than normal due to the earthquake just six months ago that wreaked havoc on the coastal road. The alternate route led far to the west, through the mountains, before heading east again.

We were convinced we’d missed the bus when 10 minutes after the listed departure time, another bus pulled up and the driver informed us that we should have been at the central station, not at the listed bus stop outside the Northlands mall. We were just looking into other travel options, realizing we might miss the next day's ferry ride as well ... when the bus suddenly appeared. Whew.

On the bus, Meg met a French woman, Sandrine, that like us has been traveling for many, many months and would not be done until August. At the first bathroom stop, our driver informed us to be back at ten to the hour. When the driver started to leave after cursory head count, we pointed out that one man, the man that had been sitting next to me, had not returned. Sandrine was aghast at the drivers refusal to wait for the missing passenger and his dismissal of the claim based on his cursory headcount; “Everyone’s here,” he announced. Unfortunately, Gustav Nordquist’s belongings -- money, credit card and passport -- were still on his seat and presumably his bags below in the cargo hold. We never found out exactly what happened to him, but we did complain to the bus company and tried to email Gustav based on the email address we found in his bag.

The rest of the ride was uneventful, but in typical New Zealand fashion, breathtakingly beautiful.

Dex, Sandrine, and Kylie

When we finally arrived in the coastal town of Picton, we walked the twenty minutes to the campground and were excited to see of a couple stingrays and an 11 arm sea star in the marina. Despite not having our van any more, we chose another Top 10 campground staying in one of the cute little detached rooms there since they were one of the cheaper housing options. With a pool and pedal cars, I’m pretty sure Kylie and Dex were ok with that decision. They were also ok with our restaurant choice that offered great meals and, a first for us, a Stop Light drink. The kids gave it the thumbs up.

Mischief makers!

A Stoplight