Only In New Zealand: The Weta Cave.

February 28, 2009 by
Filed under: Life in New Zealand, Only in New Zealand, Things to do 

It was a miserable day in Wellington today so we decided to visit the Weta Cave, an emporium of all things weird and wonderful that come out of the just as weird minds of the folks at Weta Digital.


Boy – could I have spent some serious money today.

It’s a little hard to find if you don’t know your way around Wellington, so basically head out of town to Miramar, and as you come into the shopping area, turn up Park Road. Head to the end of the street, past the new and very swanky Park Road Studios, head round the corner, and it’s on the left. In a very ordinary looking house just past the warehouses.

You have no idea looking at the building what lurks inside.

Swords, armour, monsters; its all there. Basically it’s a little museum and shop for all the collectables that Weta makes when it’s not helping make wonderful films. We also sat down to watch a 20-minute film looking at the work the studio does. You probably know most of it already – does anyone actually exist that doesn’t know Lord Of The Rings was made here??? Weta is the Special Effects arm of Peter Jackson’s film empire. The ones that make all the cool monsters, and make things look real when they don’t really exist. Like Lucasfilm’s ILM – only possibly better.

gollum

Kiwi Humour :)

Kiwi Humour :)

I had a thought while I was there (other than whether it was acceptable to drool all over the place). Why is it that New Zealand carries this attitude that it cant be expected to do things as well as other countries because it only has a population of just over 4 million?

Peter Jackson, and Richard Taylor who runs Weta have beaten Hollywood at making movies; and if the last 3 Star Wars movies are anything to go by have seriously surpassed anything that Lucasfilm and ILM can now make. And they did it not just from the tiny New Zealand, but they didn’t even do it in our biggest city. They did it in a suburb of Wellington! They are grabbing business from Hollywood studios, and bringing it here. They are the ones creating new technologies in film and TV – and I don’t think anyone can fairly say they aren’t the best at it. Or that they get extra credit for coming from New Zealand – but really they are not that good.

Check out the Cave – it’s fantastic. Small – but perfectly formed – just like New Zealand.

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Comments

2 Comments on Only In New Zealand: The Weta Cave.

  1. Joanna on Sun, 1st Mar 2009 3:39 pm

    2. Have you seen this: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/4839818/Disabled-woman-given-mermaid-tail-to-help-her-swim.html ? I think it was in the NZ media quite a while ago, but has only just hit the UK media

  2. Avalon on Sun, 1st Mar 2009 3:40 pm

    3. Wow – it gets even more impressives. Who would have thought that such a small place could manage so much. I hope they are stonkingly proud of what they have achieved.

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