Weta

POSTED BY SI

We're in Wellington, staying with Lorraine & Dunc, friends from home. They emigrated nearly a decade ago, to Christchurch for 7 years, and 'Welly' since. 

It's great to see them, and a very welcome break from the van. The kids have instantly got along, so tonight we're leaving them (our girls and their three boys, Lucas, Max and Toby) with Dunc's mum and having a grown up evening out. 

Tomorrow we're up early to get the InterIslander, the ferry to the South Island. 

The weather is nasty at the moment, the beaches doing a fair impression of Cornwall in August: drizzly, windy, cold and thoroughly uninviting. 

So this afternoon we visited The Weta Workshop 'cave'.

Richard Taylor's remarkable little effects shop that started making props and effects for fairly hokey stuff like Xena: Warrior Princess, (and early Peter Jackson fayre like Braindead, PJ fans) and was catapulted firmly into the big league with PJ's Lord of the Rings. 

They've done very cool stuff in recent times on things like District 9 and Avatar. There's a little tour round the workshop, which is fascinating. It's a nerd paradise.

They won't let you take pictures in the workshop, but here's some from the shop and outside displays.