Welly-moot #4 report - great meetup!

No excuses - I'm late with my report! It's already been five days since the fourth Welly-moot took place at Wellington's Embassy Theatre, and it was a great success!

The only bit of confusion happened at the start of the meeting - our meeting's start time coincided with the Embassy's start time of the Grease movie nostalgia session, and they'd arranged for a live Rock'n'Roll band to be entertaining that audience before their movie began. Unfortunately they were still playing in "our" spot when we got to the cafe.

Luckily though, they were fun to watch, and the singing (and dancing!) stopped just as I started getting worried, so that all worked ok.


All in all, the Welly-moot attracted a good size "crowd" of hobbit lovers, including some familiar faces, as well as some new ones.

Welly-moot #4 - the biggest one yet!

It was really nice to catch up with Emily again (second from the left in the photo), she attended the first Welly-moot as well. Rachel (far left) was here at the Embassy for the previous meeting, while Ryan, Jenifer and little Hawk (front and centre) have been to all four Welly-moots so far - well done and well met!

A few days before the meeting, I got an email from Ayako, a lovely Japanese woman from Palmerston North, and she came to the meeting with her husband Randall and daughter Rio, as well as a friend Maki with her daughter. The day before the meeting I had Kumiko on my tour - another Japanese woman currently living in Wellington with and her son, and they also both came today. Add to that my wife Aiko, and it quickly became the Japanese contingent of the Welly-moot. (Aiko managed to avoid the camera's eye by volunteering to take the photo - everyone else is at the back on the right). Tolkien is still very popular in Japan as well, it seems!

Some very special guests also joined us - two of Weta Workshop's best designers/inventors/wizards, Warren and Kim Beaton. I met Kim a few years ago, and have had the pleasure of taking them both on a tour around the Wellington region last year. Since then, they've (a) invented some animal-leg stilts, (b) designed a complete cinema for Peter Jackson, (c) are working on a certain Middle-earth movie that starts with "H", and (d) got married, so you could so their year has been reasonably active.


All in all, a rowdy and fun afternoon. The discussions I was part of included the inevitable Rugby World Cup, and the recent snowfalls in Wellington. Also, for some reason, Legolas's presence in Wellington seemed to be a hot topic. Everybody seemed to want to know where to find him (don't worry, Orlando and Miranda, your secret is safe - I certainly don't know it)!

The other rumours currently floating about are the sheer number of "absolutely confirmed" (read: totally not confirmed) filming locations for The Hobbit around the end of the year. Queenstown, Dunedin, Nelson, Te Anau, and Wellington are all contenders, apparently. The studio isn't giving out actual confirmations, so we'll just have to wait and see. Personally, I'm obviously waiting for Wellington locations to add to our tours in the future.


In order for me to entice Ayako to drive all the way from Palmerston North with her family for our meeting, I had promised to take them to the Mount Victoria LOTR location, which we did at the end of the day. The Embassy Theatre is actually on Mt Vic anyway, so that wasn't far to drive. Ryan and Jenifer joined us as well, and we ended up re-enacting the hobbits' famous "Get Off The Road" scene, before parting ways until the next meeting.

I hope everyone enjoyed it as much as we did - and if you didn't/couldn't come this time, we'd love to see you next time!

  - Jack M.

Welly-moot #4 - Hobbit meeting on 4th of Sept

I flipped a coin in the air and decided it was time to have ourselves another Hobbit meeting. They're always fun, and enjoyed by everyone there. So, here are the details:

What : Welly-moot #4
When : September the 4th, at 2:00pm
Where : Embassy Theatre, upstairs in the cafe
Who : All Hobbit friends in Wellington on the day (that's you!)
What to bring : Money for coffee & cakes, yourselves.(*)

(*) and cool stuff to show off, if you want to! A good old fashioned Show'n'Tell!


The agenda for the meeting : we all turn up, and have a fun afternoon, meeting old friends and making new ones.

I have set up a facebook event for it as well - if you're on Facebook, add yourself to the attendee list here.


Looking forward to seeing as many of you there as possible!

- Jack M.

MEN Extras required in Wellington!

Last week, it was widely reported that 3 Foot 7 Ltd had put out a call for ELF Extras via New Zealand's job seeking website, Trademe.co.nz.

Originally, the advertisement stated :

We are currently looking for slim men 17-30 years and between 165cm – 178 cm or 5’5” -5’8” AND slim women 17-30 years between 165cm – 173cm or 5’5” to 5’8” to play ELF extras.

I've just revisited the site, and it seems to have changed completely. It now it says :

We are currently looking for MEN based in the Wellington region aged 30 plus, medium - large build, 5'8" - 6 foot (175cm - 183cm) Character faces, beards, missing teeth - all good.

I'm not sure if that means they're still looking for Elves or no longer - I guess it pays to respond quickly to these advertisements!

I'm also not sure if they're looking for MEN as a race (as opposed to ELVES), or MEN as a gender (as opposed to WOMEN extras). I've put my application in just in case - I didn't qualify for the ELF call, but this time I'm in!

Bonus - it no longer requires applicants to be slim and pretty, in fact being larger and ugly may just count as a plus! So, watch for my name in the credits!


So if you live in Wellington (a requirement, I'm afraid), apply quickly before it all changes again!

- Jack

Retraction - Laketown not located as previously reported

It appears that the previous rumour about Laketown having been found was incorrect. Although there is a large movie being filmed in the Duntroon-Kurow area, it is apparently NOT The Hobbit.

New information has come to me which suggests that it is in fact a movie called Mister Pip, which will star Hugh Laurie (from the TV hit series House and the classic Black Adder). Hugh Laurie has previously worked with Stephen Fry on a various projects, notably the comedy show A Bit Of Fry and Laurie.

Of note also is that Mister Pip is being directed by Andrew Adamson, who directed the best two Shrek movies (1 and 2), and the best two Narnia movies (1 and 2). Sounds like Mister Pip, (and any eventual sequel?) will be great (although I'd skip Mister Pip 3)...!


So, no Laketown location yet. That's what you get with rumours!

Keep them coming though! If you've heard anything else please drop me a line!

  - Jack M.

Another two possible locations?

I've heard two interesting but fairly non-specific location rumours from another source.

 To start with, some of the locals in Te Anau are reporting that some "Hobbit people" (their phrase, not mine!) are putting feelers out for mass accommodation in that area around Late November/Early December 2011. Does that mean they'll be out there filming around then? As far as I know, no actual bookings have been made anywhere, so "wait and see" is probably accurate......


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Also, apparently there's "something large" (movie set related) being set up near the town of Middlemarch, inland from Dunedin. The indications I'm getting is that this was also Hobbit related, but I couldn't get that confirmed. Middlemarch is approximately an hour drive from Dunedin, so it until some of these stories firm up, it's probably not worth anybody's time to get out there and investigate...


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So, nothing solid here at all, just the usual rumours and speculation! Nothing changes, in other words! :)

If anybody has heard any other rumours, please drop me a line!


  - Jack M.

Laketown located?

Update 16-Aug-2011 - Rumour retracted...
 =========================================

Last night I heard an interesting rumour from one of my spies who is currently in the South Island. She's been spending the winter in the beautiful Waitaki Valley, somewhere inland between Oamaru and Timaru (which in turn are between Christchurch and Dunedin).


She's heard from a source that "a big movie" is being filmed somewhere between the towns of Duntroon (population 114) and Kurow (population 339), along the Waitaki River.

Coupled with reports (here, and here) of Luke Evans (playing Bard the Bowman) and Stephen Fry (playing Master of Laketown) coming into New Zealand for their scenes, is it possible that the next location to be filmed is Laketown?


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Note also its proximity to the town of Twizel, which was previously used for LOTR's Pelenor Fields battles.


My contact is hoping to get more details by next Monday. Of course, none of this is confirmed or official in any way, and in fact, it may not even be The Hobbit movies at all! That's certainly happened before (Rumour 3 on this previous report turned out to be non-Hobbit, for instance)...

We'll just have to wait and see. Hopefully another report next week!


  - Jack

Elf-Alert - Orlando Bloom arrives in Wellington!

Earlier today, there was a report from his wife Miranda Kerr that he'd left for New Zealand last night, but I've just had it confirmed by one of my spies - Orlando Bloom has been sighted in Wellington.

Apparently the first place he visited was the Scorch-o-Rama cafe (formerly known as the Chocolate Fish Cafe) in Karaka Bay, on the Miramar Peninsula. Which just happens to be the same cafe Andy Serkis visited first when he returned as well.

If you've joined me on a fullday LOTR tour, that's where we generally have lunch. :)


So if you're reading this, Orlando - welcome back to Wellington! Couldn't have caught us on a nicer day!


To everyone else out there - keep the rumours coming! Photos would be great! :)

  - Jack M.

A cold day in Rivendell

The last few days, the weather has been brutally cold (for Wellington, at least), but today was a recordbreaker during my time as a tourguide.

On tour today, the weather started to close in as we drove north. It was hailing and sleeting at the River Anduin, but after Isengard it really began to look grim. We continued further north, and drove over the hills into the Pakuratahi Valley, where the Kaitoke Park is situated (and Rivendell within the forest).

As we drove over the hillrange, a totally new sight greeted us, and the "grim" turned to "fairy tale".

July 2011

In my seven and a half years as a fulltime LOTR tourguide, I haven't seen Rivendell like this. Once, in 2004, there was a slight sprinkling of snow on the ground but this was full on. Compare this picture from then (and note the old style sign was still there, as you'll see in Ian Brodie's LOTR Location Guidebook):

August, 2004

If you've been to Rivendell before, you may remember this tree as well:

Tree opposite Frodo's Bedroom

Today it looked like this:

The park was full of Wellington children who couldn't believe their luck; snow - closeby, AND during their school holidays. In fact, all along the road back there were cars stopped beside the road with snowball fights breaking out, and snowmen being built. Hopefully for them the snow stays for a few days, but now that I have my photos I'm happy for the sun to return! :)

One more photo:

The Rivendell information sign

I drove through the area late yesterday, and there was no snow there at all, so this all happened in the last 24 hours. Awesome!

  - Jack

Welly-moot #3 was lots of fun - another success!

We got together today for the third Welly-moot, at the Embassy Theatre. It was a lot of fun, and some good discussions were held.

Around the table (clockwise from the left): Paul, Ryan, me, Moritz, Kristi, and Rachel. Aiko took the photo.

The group wasn't as big as I'd hoped, but there were some good reasons for it - the cold southerly probably deterred a few people from coming out (at least, it felt pretty cold to me but then I've just had a week in Darwin, Australia, so I'm possibly not the best judge at the moment). Also, it seems that the Wellington City Council had chosen today to make about 30 events (almost) free today - the zoo was free, the Wildlife Sanctuary was free, the council-sponsored city tourbus was free, etc. Hard to compete with that!


Various subjects came up, mostly Hobbit related, but also other movies - Avatar vs Fern Gully; Matrix vs Inception; Harry Potter vs Star Wars to name a few of the more heated discussions.

Kristi had details of a local Victoria University (hosted) course on Tolkien's elven language Quenya, and I may have more details about that in a few days. Also, of course, the Blu-Ray releases of the Extended Editions came up, and the sessions at both the Embassy as well as the Roxy theatres in town. Unfortunately due to my ill-timed vacation and the four day notice we got from the NZ suppliers I've missed both FOTR as well as TTT, but I should be able to make it to the ROTK, I hope.

One plan that was discussed was to have a local Marathon Session at one of our homes, with a projector and microwave popcorn. Maybe it's time to put a weekend aside soon, and invite as many as will fit into our lounge?


All in all, I think the Welly-moot was fun, and I look forward to our next one! The Embassy looks like a permanent venue for them. It's bigger, reasonably convenient to park close to, and of course very relevant - the LOTR parade photos still grace its walls!

Looking forward to seeing more people there next time though!

  - Jack

Date finally set for Welly-moot #3 - June 26th.

After much deliberation (and some procrastination), I've finally decided on a date for the third Hobbit meeting - and a new venue as well.

The Embassy Cinema in 2003. The Fellbeast has since been decapitated by Eowyn. (photo (c) Jack Machiela)

For those who didn't attend the last few times, the Welly-moots are just a casual meeting of Hobbit fans from around the Wellington region (and the occasional Aucklander!). We meet up with the intent to discuss Hobbit related subjects but end up just getting together for a coffee and cake at a local cafe instead. The meetings are 95% social, and about 5% announcements. They are 100% fun, 110% chaos and occasionally the noise level goes up to eleven.


The details for this month's meeting are as follows:

Date : June the 26th, 2011
Time : 2:00pm
Location : Upstairs in the Embassy Cinema (10 Kent Terrace)
Bring : Hobbitty Rumours, and Money for Coffee


NB - the venue is yet to be has now been confirmed - it can still change.

 There is no agenda for these meetings - so far there have been minimal speeches, and only a few "formal" announcements of any type. I've had some giveaways in the past, but I haven't decided this time yet. The meetings are more a way for getting Hobbit fans together. We're all excited by Sir Peter Jackson's new movies!

There's no cover charge, although the venue will know we're coming this time (and will expect us to buy their coffees etc).

I would appreciate if you could RSVP via my Facebook page - that way I'll know if the venue has become too small again.

See you there!