Day 2: Weta Workshop!
So today was somewhat a better day for me. Well, my body did wake up at 5:30am (allowing me to take my meds) I was able to go back to sleep for a few hours. After getting ready for the day, I caught a ride with my Airbnb host (who is pretty sweet and have the cutest grandson) to Wellington CBD (basically downtown). Saved me bus money for sure!
I met up with my friend, Ben, and we headed to Memphis Belle for some yummy coffee. Apparently the “Flat White” is the most popular coffee in New Zealand. Normally, I like my coffee cold but this one was decently cooled enough where it didn’t automatically burn your mouth when you took the first sip. It had a nice layer of foam and the larger ratio of milk definitely helped with the temperature.
I had some pretty decent fish and chips (I forgot the name of the place unfortunately 😩). It had this really nice coleslaw that is lighter than the typically American stuff. Normally, I don’t like coleslaw much but this was enjoyable!
The most exciting part was what happened after breakfast/lunch. We went to the Weta Workshop where they display a lot of the costumes that appears in Peter Jackson’s movies (think Lord of the Rings, Narnia). Due to my unplanningliness, we had to wait until 5 for the tour, leaving us with roughly 2 hours to kill. Not knowing what to due, we decided to walk towards the water. The hill was awful! The steepness of the hill was almost unbearable but once you got over it, the downwards walk to the water was quite easy.
Doesn’t that look nice?! It was certainly beautiful! I couldn’t get over how beautiful it was. It was just blue water going for miles. Luckily I had a person to take a photo for me instead of using a selfie stick:
It was quite windy but relaxing. Ben and I spent most of the time chillaxing on a bench and discussing some of what’s been happening in our lives. It was a good conversation, very philosophical at times. As I looked out into the water, I felt weirdly happy and free. It was a feeling I had not felt in a very long time. It was good to feel that free and not worry about my life. I liked that feeling. I wanted to keep that feeling. The plaque on the bench I sat on pretty much summed up what I was feeling at that moment
Now for the fun part! Weta Workshop was awesome! The gift shop had all these trinkets. My favorite was the Tauriel’s pendant…absolutely beautiful! There were so many costumes and swords. Bad part? No pictures allowed!!! That was the most disappointing thing ever, BUT I enjoyed the tour. I saw how they made the guns in District 9 and the actual helmets that the actors wore in Narnia. Best of all, there was the swords and arrows that featured in the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies. The tour guide (who also worked on the different pieces) talked about all the different version of costumes each character had in order to show the height difference of the Lord of the Rings characters. There was even an actual person working on some drawings for new costumes. One of my favorite pieces was the little armors that someone (the public can order personal pieces!) orders in order to dress up their guinea pigs. If only they had let me take pictures (apparently there are copyright issues), but here’s a few from the Weta Cave:
For dinner, I had this yummy beef schnitzel and some beer. The New Zealanders here sure do cole slaw. It’s been on almost everything I’ve eaten so far here. Since we had a little time before my Airbnb host was leaving for home (around 9pm), we decided to hit up this place called Alice. It’s basically a Wonderland themed bar. It was very chill and that drink was purty tasty.
Since I didn’t meet my host in time, I just hung out a bit and tried to figure out how to get back home. It was a fun experience and I got to hang out with a friend! Even though I got back around 11pm, I was able to write some of this on the train ride back to the house. Annnd now it’s time for me to turn in for the day and research my body for tomorrow!
Bye y’all!
