A Red Carpet Weekend – ‘Lord of the Rings’ Tourism in Wellington

“I think I need to be pinched,” Charlotte whispered as she reached out with both hands to take the glittering golden statue being passed to her. She curled her thin fingers tightly around it, a grin tugging at the corners of her mouth as a photo was snapped. Similar camera flashes lit up the small Miramar boardroom as the five identical statues made their rounds.

“So heavy!” Josephine exclaimed, pretending to be weighed down by two statues, one in each hand. “How do Peter Jackson hold four of them up?” she asked in her broken English, sounding slightly bewildered at the thought.

Weta Workshop Oscar

As Weta Workshop’s five Academy Awards made their way from one set of eager, outstretched hands to the next, bewilderment and awe seemed to be a common reaction.

“I can’t believe this is happening.”

“Get a picture; I may not believe it myself tomorrow.”

“Seriously, somebody pinch me.”

Amidst the camera flashes and exclamations of disbelief, it took a moment for the group to notice a tall, bespectacled figure slipping into the room. Suddenly, there was Richard Taylor, director and effects supervisor of Weta Workshop, beaming at them.

“Sorry I’m late,” he said, flashing a playful, slightly crooked grin.

Richard Taylor

An awed silence fell, but was broken almost immediately by an outburst of greetings and thanks from both the group and Richard alike. The group seemed to transform; they ceased to be a group of ordinary tourists. Because, grasping those lustrous bits of Lord of the Rings history – of cinematic history, of New Zealand history even – in their hands in the presence of the man who helped to win them meant that they, too, were a part of it all.

——

In the background, watching the scene with smiles on their round, friendly faces, stood Vic and Raewyn James, owners and operators of Red Carpet Tours. Each month, Vic and Raewyn guide small groups of Lord of the Rings fans across New Zealand on 12-day Middle-Earth-inspired tours. A visit like this to Wellington’s Weta Workshop – complete with signed confidentiality agreements and an insider tour of the facility’s store rooms – is made as often as conditions allow.

“They [the tourists] get to experience something very few people do,” Raewyn said, “and, at the same time, Richard, if he’s available, gets to show them how appreciative he is of the time and money they sacrifice to come all the way to New Zealand because of these films.”

Wellington, immersed as it is in New Zealand’s cinematic past, present and future, is rife with Lord of the Rings filming locations, production studios, and people who were involved in the trilogy. It was here that I had the chance to get acquainted with the “August 2008 Fellowship,” as they called themselves. The group was an eclectic hodgepodge of ages and nationalities, unified only in their love of Lord of the Rings. An affinity with hobbits and elves drew every tour member to New Zealand (some of them for a second or third time), each of them hoping to find their own personal Middle-Earth between its coastlines.

——

I was invited to experience this quest to find Middle-Earth on my second day with the August Fellowship. It was a blustery, rain-soaked Saturday morning, and our destination was a filming location on the side of Mount Victoria. Having navigated our way up the disconcertingly narrow road in Vic’s 12-seater van, we found ourselves staring down a winding, wet dirt path marked with a “Lord of the Rings Filming Location” sign. Bundled up in scarves, hats, and, in Josephine’s case, an Elven cloak, we gingerly began to pick our way down the slick trail.

Josephine, being Taiwanese and rather hobbit-sized herself, was too short to keep her woolen cloak out of the mud naturally. Instead, she resorted to gathering up a fistful of fabric in each small hand and holding her arms out straight to her sides, causing the cloak to billow out behind her.

“Superman Frodo!” she declared as she careened down the trail.

Not everyone was attacking the soggy track with such reckless abandon, however. Susi and Mary, the two oldest and most seasoned Red Carpet veterans (both on their third jaunt through Middle-Earth) kept mumbling about how they were “too old for this.”

Everything from age to super powers was forgotten, however, as we reached the spot. The bit of trail we stood on looked just the same as any other. Feeble rays of winter sun filtered through gaps in the thick canopy overhead, resulting in a mottled half-light that fell upon moist leaves and rusty-colored soil. It smelled of earth and of rain, and certainly wouldn’t have seemed like anything special to the ordinary passer-by. But to the August Fellowship, this spot meant something.

“Frodo stood right over there, looking towards us, and delivered his ‘Get off the road’ line,” Vic said, pointing to the path in front of us. “And down there,” he continued, pointing to a spot where the trail dropped off slightly to our left, “was where the hobbits hid under a large tree root from the Black Rider.”

As soon as Vic finished speaking, the trail erupted in a blur of motion. Josephine grabbed three others and was soon crouching down in the damp hollow to the left of the path.

“Susi! We need Black Rider!” Josephine motioned wildly with her hands to get the older woman’s attention.

"Get off the road!"

Susi complied willingly, standing on the path and doing her best to loom over the four prone figures in the dirt. For maximum menace, she pulled her black scarf up over her long grey hair and contorted her hands into claws. Below her, the four “hobbits” made their best frightened faces. Several cameras flashed, capturing the image.

The group spent at least half an hour re-enacting scenes on the trail, taking turns playing hobbits and Black Riders. The cold weather and damp ground could not wipe the smiles off their faces as they bounded from hollow to path and back again.

On our way back to the van, ears stinging and cheeks rosy from the chilly wind, Susi halted the group with a yell.

“We have to do our first Orc Run!”

A Red Carpet “Orc Run” is what it sounds like. It requires participants to find a hill and some sort of makeshift weapon, then to charge down that hill brandishing said weapon while acting as “orc-ish” as possible.

After finding a suitable small hill, Susi stood at the bottom and took on the role of both director and videographer. The August Fellowship rummaged in the undergrowth for sticks and, in one case, an entire tree bough, and plastered sneers on their faces. On Susi’s command, each and every one of them stampeded down the hill in unison, shaking their “weapons” and growling and grunting as they went. By the time they reached the bottom, many – young and old alike – had dissolved into giggles.

I don’t think it’s something an outsider could possibly understand. But, just as on the damp path where they transformed into hobbits and Black Riders, as they charged down the hill, shaking their tree branches, it seemed as though they had forgotten they were in New Zealand. For those spaces of time, they really were in Middle-Earth.

——

As we piled back into the van, everyone chuckling and grinning from the surge of energy the Orc Run had conjured, I asked Susi what it was that kept her coming back with such enthusiasm.

“I just can’t help myself! But no, no, seriously, I think the Lord of the Rings films are very unique in that viewers give something of themselves – well, of course money, time; the sorts of things you give to see any movie – but, the difference is, with this one, they get something back. They get back a sense of being a part of something – a feeling of fellowship.”

Josephine, back in her puffy red winter coat after safely stowing away her woolen cloak, agreed. It was Josephine’s second Red Carpet Tour, and her third time in New Zealand.

“This is just like going back to hometown,” she said, “visiting old friends. This is the worthiest thing I got in the Middle-Earth: knowing there are so many fans like me around the world. Makes me feel not so isolated.”