I have been a Huge Lord of the Rings fan since i was a Teen, I grew up in Upper Hutt, a city 40 min’s drive from Wellington City, the capital of New Zealand and home of Lord of the Rings.
When I was around 10 or 11, I was out walking with my sister’s towards our local playground at Harcout Park, We used to cut in the back way because it was the closest entrance to our house, When we suddenly found ourselves in the middle of a movie set.
We knew “Lord of the Rings” was being filmed around Wellington, but the general public didn’t know when or where. (this was way before social media when even forums were a new concept) so we were pretty excited and shocked to stumble across a set 10 minuets from our house. A security guard promptly escorted us back the way we come and we ran home to tell my Dad what had happened.
A LOTR Scene Filmed at Harcourt Park 
Me and my Niece last week in the same spot
The first film “Fellowship of the ring” came out around 2 years latter. My older sister was the first to see the film first with a couple of her friends. She told me it was really good and that i would love it, so she took me to see it for the first of what would end up being 11 times I would see Fellowship of the ring in cinema’s. I was obsessed with the story immediately, i loved the beautiful costumes and scenery, and i loved that something so beautiful was made in New Zealand.
As a teen when I liked something then i Really, Really, REALLY liked it, I went crazy, I obsessed over it. I started to clip magazine and news papers for articles and photos about the movies and would put them up on the walls of my room like posters, or into clear file’s for safe keeping.
I quickly found a few of my good friends loved the movie just as much as me. We would often see the films together, skipping classes to go to a cinema at the end of the street of our school who would allow us to use beanbags on the floor at the front of the cinema for $5 each. I even had a Lord of the Rings themed Birthday Party one year.
This obsession peaked when one day my friends and I decided to print out a map of where Peter Jackson’s studio was located in Miramar wellington, skip school and jump on a bus and try to find it, and find it we did!.
We spent quite a few days over the next year or two skipping school and jumping on a bus to go to Miramar where we would hang around outside the studio to get a glimps at our favourite actor and actresses. There was a section of wire fence at the back of the studio where at one point, we could look through to a sound stage of the dead marshes to watch Elijah Wood, Sean Astin and Andy Serkis filming re-shoot’s for “The Two towers”. The security guards were friendly and we were aloud to watch as long as we didn’t make noise or take photos. The cast and crew also were also very welcoming to us, on one of our first visit’s Billy Boyd who played Pippin in the movies, stopped his car on his way out of the studio to jump out and sign our books and chat with us, Another time it was Sean Astin (AKA Sam)
I remember my Dad went out to the studios and gave the security man on the gate a birthday card in an envelope addressed to me and asked if they could get any of the cast to sign it for me, a week or so latter the card showed up on my mail signed by Elijah wood wishing me a happy sweet 16th birthday.
Leading up to the the release of the final film “Return of the King” me, my friend Lydia and and Sister managed to somehow get ourselves into some crazy exclusive events in Wellington. We offered to help unpack trucks for a book launch of Gary Russel’s “the art of lord of the rings” Books in exchange for tickets inside, it worked, and next thing we knew we were in a cocktail party with Viggo Mortensen, Karl Urban and Richard Taylor.
Or the time my sister arranged tickets to the New Zealand post launch for the the official Lord of the rings stamp sets, just as long as we dressed up. Next thing i know, I found myself in a beautiful stately room at the beehive (the New Zealand parliament buildings) dressed as a hobbit with a cabbage in my hand surrounded by Hollywood stars and New Zealand politicians in cocktail dresses sipping champagne. (But hey, I did get about 20 sets of the limited edition stamps that are still to this day in mint condition, they have to be worth something right?)
But all of this was leading up to the big one, the biggest thing to ever hit Courtney place in Wellington, the Word Premiere of “The return of the king”
For my friends and I this was a HUGE deal, We wanted to be on the barrier right outside the Embassy theatre, The Embassy is a landmark in Wellington and was refurbished by Peter Jackson prior to the Return of the King Premiere. Each Year when a new LOTR film was released Weta workshop who created the special effects, and props for Lord of the rings, would create a replica to put on top of the theatre for the duration of the films time in theatres. We knew this would be a highly desired spot, we figured we would need to claim the spot t he night before, this would take planning, this would take dedication!
Cave troll replica by Weta Workshop in wellington in 2002 
Nazgul replica by Weta Workshop
We booked a room at the YHA in Wellington and pre-planned a sleeping scheduled that would allow 2 of us to save our barrier spot while the other 2 slept or got food, went to the bathroom etc. We arrived in Wellington about 2pm the day before, Checked into the YHA and headed to Courtney place to check everything out. We were horrified to see our desired spot was already almost full. So we grabbed a piece of barrier and claimed our spot.
The next 24 hours were WILD as out team of 4 teenage girls tried t o defend our spot from an ever growing crowd of Fans. At around 1am Ian Mckellen and Viggo Mortensen came down to greet the crowd and say hello. The Mass of people was 10 deep from barrier by 2am and it was no longer an option to leave or spot or risk loosing it, We were tired and hungry. But we sucked it up and made it through the night. Buy this point he crowd was so thick i couldnt see the back and people were starting to set up in the windows and on the roofs of the buildings over looking the streets.
Trans Metro Wellington Tickets used for one day only on the Premiere day
Around midday the party started with local bands playing on a stage. Then an army of elves dressed in the actual costumes used in the movies started marching down the red carpet followed by cars carrying the stars of Lord of the rings. That is when the wait was finally worth it for 13 year old me, finally i got to take a selfie with my favourite actor (who at the time i was certain i was going to marry) Dominic Monaghan. My Little fan girl heart exploded and i am 99.9% sure i was crying, But i will cherish this photo forever. It was cleare my highly artistic sign and custom singlet top featuring Dom’s face and a caption that said “Dom’s Fairy” (insert face palm emoji) caught his attention as intended. ROFL. (dont you love how i thought it was super important to put my full name on the sign)
After the Premiere the Lord of the rings events Fizzled out, we skipped school one last time to attend a party held in the wellington civic centre to welcome home Peter Jackson and his crew after their Oscar Wins, We were front row and centre, we ended up on the front page of the news paper, my form teacher was pissed the next day, But I got to hold an Oscar so i really didn’t care.
So, yeah, it is fair to say i am a Lord of the Rings fan girl, a mega stan, and recently I had the chance to head home to Wellington to revisit some of the shooting locations and head back out to my old haunt in Miramar to do a tour of Weta Workshop and see where we used to stand all day outside those studios.
If you are ever in Wellington you MUST visit Weta workshop, I don’t care if you haven’t even seen Lord of the Rings (well OK i would secretly judge you if you haven’t) it is a must see. Being a Peter Jackson fan i had a fair idea of what he and Weta workshop had been involved in but was blown away by the number of high profile projects they had a hand in that i never knew about.
You get to see actual props, costumes and miniatures from movies like The Lord of the Rings, The Chronicles of Narnia (I Held Prince Caspian’s sword) District 9, Ghost in a shell, Thunder birds, The Hobbit and my lord the list honestly goes on and on. You learn how Weta makes its masterpieces and how they artistically blend made by hand techniques with modern technology, and our guide was as funny as he was knowledgeable. I was in my heaven and turned back into my teen fan girl self in an instant.
The experiences i had because of the Lord of the rings films have been one of a kind and have helped turn me into the person i am today. They taught me to always dream big, they have helped me make life long friends and more than anything else i love what they have done for my home country of New Zealand. These movies put our beautiful land on the map, they have driven our tourism industry and the making of these films along with Peter Jackson and Weta Workshops other ventures have given thousands of Kiwi’s jobs (at the height of filming the hobbit, Weta was employing over 3000 people in Miramar alone) It has also given New Zealand a gateway to crack into the movie business, something that is not easy for people from our tiny country that is often left off the map, and It reminds us that even without wings we Kiwis will fly.
30 Years of Fan Girling 