Weta, game day and away

For our free day before the Auckland game I booked us tickets for the Weta workshop unleashed. The actual Weta workshop is in Wellington where Peter Jackson is originally from. It’s further out of town and we ran out of time or we would’ve done both.

This Weta experience was an immersive walk through of how they create practical effects, miniature sets, weapons and costumes. Since Weta doesn’t own the rights to use the true film examples, they created 3 mock films as their examples. A horror film, a fantasy and a science fiction film. As you go into each room, your guide lets you explore everything and take plenty of photos. Then they explain the various processes used in creating everything. The horror room was rather gory and they warned you about a jump scare coming in the next portion and gave the option to anyone who had a heart condition or just wanted to skip that part of the tour.

The fantasy room included a miniature castle very similar to Minas Tirith from LOTR. There was also a throne where everyone had the chance to take pics with prop swords. The level of craftsmanship and detail that Weta does continues to amaze.

It was rainy after we finished the Weta tour so we opted to not go up to the Sky Tower and hope for a sunny morning. We chose wisely and the skies cleared for game day. We headed back to Sky Tower and took the super fast elevator ride to the observation deck. Sky Tower is twice the size of the Space Needle and also includes a revolving restaurant. The elevator and observation deck has glass panels in the floor for added thrills. The view is amazing.

We headed back to the hotel to get game day ready. Walking down to the train they had signs for ticket holders to bypass the paid gates and show our ticket for a free ride. It’s about a 20 minute ride out to Eden park just south of the city.

We located our seats behind the goal and watched as the fans spilled in. The wind was cold so we had all of our extra layers on before the game started. The first half dragged and I started to feel even colder. We opted to leave early and watch the end at the hotel. The trains weren’t set to run again until after the game was over so we grabbed a cab and thawed out. We watched the end while we packed up to be ready for another travel day. Our final leg in Sydney for the final!