frodo’s girl writes:
I had the pleasure of attending several events at Te Papa this past week. The first one was a black tie dinner for the embassy trust on the 17th. the members got to see the new LotR exhibit(http://www.tepapa.govt.nz/rings/) before it opened and have a delectable dinner catered by Te Papa’s own Icon restaurant.
Members arrived at 6.30pm and were treated to drinks and allowed to peruse the exhibit for an hour and a half before sitting down to a 3-course meal. The exhibit is brilliant. Too much to describe really, there are costumes from FotR (Gandalf the Grey, Aragorn, small Frodo, Legolas, small Gimli, Galadriel, Arwen), sets of full armor with weapons (one suit from most of the races, plus the elf armor the used for the massive agents, and Theoden’s), a few weapons and some chain mail you can touch, several concept drawings, lots of video (some are the extras from the extended dvd), the head of the Treebeard pneumatic puppet, the final marquette for the cave troll, and the boromir in the boat (which is absolutely fabulous, you keep thinking it is really Sean Bean, and that he is going to sit up at any moment), not to mention a myriad of props and more. There is also an interactive bit where you and your buddy can sit on Gandalf’s cart and be the size of a wizard, or a hobbit – very fun. It was marvelous to be able to see the exhibit with a small crowd before it opened to the public. A truly great evening.
I returned to the exhibit on the 19th with the red carpet tours group and got to spend another 2 hours in the exhibit (it really takes multiple viewings to see everything), and though you can’t take a camera in, I did get some shots of the statues at the entrance of Te Papa, and the entrance to the exhibit itself which I have included. I also got to spend the rest of the day with the tour while they went to some filming sites around Wellington.
I was back at Te Papa the next day to get Ian Brodie’s signature in my travel guide. I had met Ian in my last trip through NZ and it was wonderful to catch up with him again. Ian was one of the lucky ones that got to the premier. While we visited Ian signed a bunch of books for the exhibit store to sell – you might be able to get one if you order them soon
(http://www.tepapa.govt.nz/rings/store_books1.htm)
Anyway, I’m sure I’ll be back to the exhibit at least another few times before it leaves at the end of February. If any of you have a chance to see it here, or at one of the other 4 venues, be sure and take it.
cheers,
frodo’s girl
