We had a free morning on this second to last day of our trip. We’d seen a lot of Wellington between the two visits, so we headed out to the ‘burbs to visit Wētā Workshop. When Sir Peter Jackson produced the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings trilogy, he turned to his country people and couple Sir Richard Taylor and Tania Roger for costumes, masks, weapons and props. Even though I don’t have a detailed memory of the characters from those movies, and have seen very few of the many, many other fantasy/adventure/superhero movies they’ve worked on, I was mightily impressed.
They are brilliant: chainmail from painted PVC pipe– links without the weight! And the masks! So many masks. And medieval weapons that look heavy but are not. While I’m sure there is tedium in every job, this place had the atmosphere of a college dorm of art and engineering students who’d been given a huge budget and all the materials they would need to make or invent to their hearts’ content.
In keeping with their philosophy, there was a hands-on room, to sculpt with aluminum foil. A very enthusiastic artist asked any educators to please video her spiel so that kids could get involved in sculpting with aluminum. If I still had a class, this would be on my list! I tried it! Huge tip is not to squeeze the sheets too tightly together, and to use the dull side as the outward facing side.
Here’s the artist’s instructions , three minutes and lively, if you want to give it a whirl, or pass along to a kid:
Our afternoon was spent at Te Papa, the national museum of New Zealand. We had a docent tour and then some free time. The exhibit we hurried to is the not-to-be missed Gallipoli (WWI) exhibit. The exhibit tells the story of New Zealanders brutal engagement at Gallipoli. Wētā Workshop designed and executed eight human models a 2.4x scale. You can see hairs and goosebumps on arms. We experienced the engagement through these eight people
We spent quite a long time working our way through. The eight stories were profound. The number of New Zealanders who served, 100,000, might seem small, but it must be compared to the size of the country at that time, 1.1 million people. That means 9% of the population saw war. It is a stunning percentage of mostly young men, though some nurses and older soldiers too. At that point in history, New Zealand was part of Great Britain, and would have automatically joined the war when Britain did. However, it is not European. It indicates how, as part of its identity at that time, an army could be raised to support a war far, far away. The involvement in the war is seen as helping to develop a national identity as New Zealanders; the nickname kiwi seems to date from around this period.
Gallipoli itself was a horrible battle that slayed nearly 2,780 soldiers. New Zealanders also served at the Western Front, and death from the war continued even after Armistice Day as soliders continued to die from war injuries. The impact of WWI is strongly felt in New Zealand still. Monuments are common (I blogged about this one near the Beehive in Wellington.) A more whimsical cultural remnant is the Anzac cookie– kind of sweet and not too moist made with golden syrup, oatmeal and coconut– it survived its overseas trips from home to troops and is still baked and eaten today. Anzac Day, April 25, is a serious day of remembrance for New Zealand, much more so than the actual Remembrance Day, November 11 (the American Veterans Day.)
Our final, fitting site at Te Papa was a marae. A modern one, with bright colors and symbolism, it can be used as auditorium space but is an actual marae so can be used for Maori ceremonies too.
This was our last night in New Zealand. I think we had a nice meal but I don’t actually remember it! We packed, and given that I didn’t blog that evening, I think it was a full day.
Events of April 4, 2025.
