Welly-moot #2, a chaotic but fun time

I've just come back from the second Welly-moot meeting, a coming-together of Hobbit fans here in Wellington, although at least one of the attendees had come from Auckland just to attend (well done, Haldirriel)! The first meeting was attended by 12 people - this time it had gone up to about 17. I think next time we'll have to find a "proper" venue! If anyone has suggestions for the next meeting, mail me!


A variety of subjects were discussed at the coffee meeting - Barbara had recently been to Hobbiton, and had printed her photos, so we all got a look at the almost finished sets there (I understand they are now completed but the photos were taken just before that). I didn't get copies - and I'd be prevented from showing them here in any case...

I'm currently trying to source a group-photo from Brian, who took a few snaps at the meeting (I'll post it here as soon as I have it). Brian is a huge Hobbit fan, and likes to collect news clippings. Brian had brought with him a large folder labelled "The Hobbit - Book 4"; yes, he has already filled three books just on The Hobbit! At home he has 22(!) large volumes filled with LOTR newsclippings!! Brian's partner Suzie was also there, as was their son Harrison.



Nicolás has recently moved from the Milford Sound in the South Island, and is currently looking for a house here in Wellington - he's hoping to get a job on the set in some way.

Also attending today were four US students from Wellington's Victoria university, three of whom I'd "rescued" off Mount Victoria a few days ago while they were taking photos of the wrong tree. The three are currently studying Film Studies here in NZ, while the fourth is a Psychology student. A bunch of Hobbit geeks together is probably a good homework assignment for a Psych student! (Unfortunately I didn't get names, so if you're reading this - drop me a line?)

Heike was there as well - I met her some time ago through the blog, she's left quite a few comments on the blog over the years. Today Heike brought me some home-made jam made from local wild blackberries - I've been eating the berries all over the region (Rivendell, the River Anduin, the Hobbiton Woods, and Brego's River all have blackberry bushes!) so the jam will go down nicely - thanks Heike! It will be enjoyed...

Jenifer and Ryan, and little Hawk, were there as well, although they were at the far side of the table (from me), so I'm afraid I didn't spend as much time talking to them as I wanted to this time - the same unfortunately went for Brendon and his partner Keryn. Brendon did bring his amazing copy of The Hobbit book, with at least twenty autographs in it!

I turned up with my lovely wife Aiko, who unfortunately had some other business to attend to for the rest of the afternoon, so she left me to it. I brought along my brand new map, recently created by Daniel Reeve (LOTR's Cartographer) for Wellington Rover Tours. I wanted to use the meeting to "officially" introduce the map to the world, so now that that has been done, I can start talking about them properly. If you look at the top of this page, you'll see a link to the "Wellywood Map" - if you want one as well, they are now available for purchase.

I'll write up another blog entry about that a bit later, but at the Welly-moot I had arranged with my boss that Wgtn Rover would donate a map to all attendees (they are usually $24.95 each). So thanks to Wellington Rover Tours there were a few lucky people there today! The other way to get yourself a map is to come on a LOTR tour, and we'll give you one!


I also tested interest for a possible Wellington Tolkien Society that I've been thinking about starting due to a total lack of a NZ chapter. There seems to be enough interest in it for me to pursue that further, so I'll be talking to the UK Tolkien Society in the next few months to see what I'd need to do.


All in all, it was a fun afternoon - it was very noisy and chaotic, there wasn't really an agenda other than "let's meet, drink coffee, and talk", and everyone had a great time! On to the next one!

LOTR 10th Anniversary, Day One of filming

fter all the discussions I had with the various "official" organisations, the huge 10th anniversary I had hoped for didn't end up eventuating. So instead, a few of us got together for a lovely hobbit afternoon tea (assuming hobbits would eat pizza, that is).

My good friend Brian Reeve called me a week beforehand and announced that since nothing else seemed to be happening, the day should be celebrated in a less formal setting instead, so he graciously offered his Upper Hutt residence for the event. Brian often gives off quite the hobbit vibe, something confirmed by the "Bag End" sign on the side of the house.

 Brian Reeve

I had emailed a few local people who'd been in touch with me in the previous weeks/months about this, and we all headed over there for a beautiful afternoon. Everyone shared a common interest in Lord Of The Rings, and in Wellington in particular. Grant found me through this blog, Erica is one of the good folks over at TORn, and Tyellas is a Tolkien based fan-fiction author I met a few months ago. Erica brought her husband Thomas and baby Charlie the resident hobbit, and of course Brian's wife suzie and son Harrison were there as well - all excellent people.

 Josh, Grant, Jack, Erica, Aiko and Tyellas. (Photo by Brian)

The weather fined up unexpectedly, and towards the end of the afternoon we took in a local LOTR sight/site - Harcourt Park, or The Gardens Of Isengard. It so "happened" that I'd taken the precaution on bringing my tour material with me, so I took everyone around the gardens where Gandalf met with Saruman to discuss what should happen to The One Ring.



All in all, a fun day after all. Especially the lunch was great - a big thanks to Erica who baked her world famous 6 minute Chocolate Cake, to Grant who brought a fine drop of wine (which, me being the driver, I always miss out on!), to Tyellas who brought the healthy fruit option, to Aiko who baked her amazing Apple Crumble, and most of all to Brian and Susie who, apart from providing the venue, outdid themselves with the excellent homemade Pizzas.

From now on there will be a number of 10th anniversaries - last day of filming, release of the three movies (one after the other), etc. Let's see how many hobbit afternoons we'll be able to set up!

As an aside, I heard of a few other cities with their own celebrations - New York had one I believe, and somewhere in India, one of my readers known as Eorl the Young organised one as well?

Did anyone else do anything? Leave me a comment here!

  - Jack M.

Hobbit lunch

((The following entry isn't much of a rumour, it's more of a diary entry of my weekend. Totally Rings related though, so bear with me.))

On Sunday the 7th of June 2009 a small group of Tolkien fans met up at the home of Brian, Suzie and Harrison Reeve, to enjoy a nice lunch of homemade pizza and pumpkin soup.

I convinced my wife Aiko and my son Josh that it wasn't just a geek outing, and our good friend Mark Fry travelled with us there as well. We were later joined by a friend of Brian's named Wayne Underhill.

From left to right - Josh, Aiko, myself, Brian, Mark, Wayne, and Suzie.
Brian, Mark, and Wayne are carrying elvish blades. None glowed blue, so all was safe.

Wayne Underhill (his actual name, I should add!) had just been exploring some LOTR locations at the North Island's central plateau, where the Mount Doom scenes were filmed amongst the volcanoes, Mounts Ngaurahoe, Ruapehu, and Tongariro. We had some photos to compare, as Josh and I had just visited a few locations in the South Island. Wayne was (among other things) a Gondorian soldier in Minas Tirith, in the Return Of The King. I suspect his name helped him get in.

Mark Fry had until recently been working at the Wellington Dymocks bookshop, which closed its doors suddenly a few weeks ago. Apart from being in the Fellowship Of The Ring (an extra in the village of Bree's bar scene), Mark had been instrumental in supplying the Wellington region with an astounding collection of LOTR and Tolkien related books and merchandise. He's also a big Tintin fan.

Brian and Suzie are possibly the two nicest people I've ever had the pleasure of meeting. I would best describe them as a pair of true hobbits. Brian is meticulous in his note keeping, where Bilbo write the Red Book all through his life, Brian has collected scrapbooks from local papers and other sources on various subjects. His LOTR collection is now up to 22 (large!) volumes! His Hobbit scrapbooks are coming along nicely as well.

I should point out that my wife and I met through LOTR - I met her as one of my tourists back in 2005, and we got married earlier this year. In many ways she's as big a fan of LOTR as I am, although she hasn't changed her career for it yet - I used to work in IT in various guises for 18 years. Going to the rainforest location of Rivendell every day is SUCH a better job!


It was a lovely meeting, and although more than a few rumours were shared, I can't reveal any of them here as the source would be too obvious. And no, I won't divulge them in the next few weeks either, unless I hear them from other sources as well. Time to do some digging!