Becks in Wellywood

The streets of Wellington
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Now I knew David Beckham had taken over Hollywood but what I didn't know was that Beckham mania would be sweeping through Wellington for the few days we were there as the town prepared itself for the man himself as his team LA Galaxy took on Wellington FC as the Westpac Stadium.

Unfortunately for me, I didn't get to see the great man himself as he arrived on the day of our Lord Of The Rings tour and trained on the day we left with the game the following day. But I did later meet a girl in the Bay of Islands who did see Becks as he made his way out of a local Nandos (haha money doesn't change everything!) after having dinner there and even managed to take a side profile photo of him. For me, I will just have to make do with the photo of me and him taken.....at Madame Tussauds in HK LOL!!!!!

Whats known as the Beehive.....the government buildings
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So Wellington is the capital of New Zealand and with so many films now being filmed in the studios there after the success of Lord Of The Rings, Wellington is now aptly nicknamed Wellywood. And who could come to Wellywood.......even come to NZ without going on one of those ridiculously overpriced LOTRs tours...not me. For me, NZ was Lord of the Rings and a tour was on my must do list!

Unfortuntately, the full day tour was all booked up (see there are many people even sadder than I am!!!) so we had to make do with the half day tour (although we almost missed that too - silly receptionist guy at our hostel told us pick up for the tour was 9:30 when it was in fact 8:30! Thank god, there was an afternoon tour that was also available otherwise he would have had alot to answer to me for!!!!). Now maybe I was alittle naive, all the scenery in LOTR looks so amazing that I was almost expecting to see the scene itself in real life. Now before anyone laughs at me.....no, obviously, I wasn't expect to see elves in a magical Rivendell Kingdom...what I meant was that I expected to see a place in real life exactly mirroring what I saw in the film. What I didn't realise was that so many of the scenes were digitally put together using many different landmarks and locations around NZ. So basically, the tour guide would take us to this little park say in the middle of the city and tell us what was filmed there. I would look at the place and think "what the hell?" and then she would show us a photo of  the scene in the film which was filmed there. The scene would have say Frodo in it and you could see that the park was used but also in the scene, Peter Jackson would have added some mountains from another part of NZ, say the Remarkables from the South Island and moved some of the trees around. What I can say that it's amazing how movies can take a tiny bit of a location which is pretty or even just so so in real life and make it look something absolutely amazing on film!!!!! Like the part in the film where Boromir, Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli and the hobbits are in the boats going down the river through this gorge......the backdrop looks pretty spectacular...in real life...it was filmed on the banks of this little river stream next to the state highway!!!!!!!! And they filmed it going both upstream and then downstream then putting the two together so that the bank is shown on both sides to make it look like a gorge!!!!

More government buildings
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Haha...don't get me wrong...NZ is breathtakingly beautiful and LOTRs was filmed in some really spectacular locations in the rest of NZ......it was just that the locations in Wellington were not quite so extraordinary!!!!

What I did like about the tour was that the guide told us alot of behind the scenes facts which happened during filming. Like how Elijah Wood was only 17 when he started filming and so while the rest of the cast were all given a whole house/apartment to live in during filming, Elijah{s mum had arranged for him to live with a kiwi family for 18 months where he had to help out with chores including walking the family dog!!!!!!

Government buildings and the famous Beehive
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Another was how that Viggo guy who played Aragorn got so into his character that he took his sword with him everywhere. That was fine until one night when he was out at dinner just himself and his sword. Now NZ already has very few people...let alone people carrying swords around town(!!!) so someone called the police. When the police came, they tried to get him to put down the sword. Being so immersed in his character....Viggo brandished his sword and yelled "I am Aragorn, son of Arathorn" to which the police obviously thought he was loopy and so arrested him. Viggo tried to tell them that his sword was a prop for the film he was making at the time but the police didn't want to know. In fact Viggo, tried everything but it wasn't until Viggo uttered the two magical words that the police let him go......and the two magical words....."Peter Jackson"!! Peter Jackson is like a king for New Zealanders  so there you go, next time you get into trouble with the law over there...just remember to say "Peter Jackson" and you'll be fine!!!!!!!

Can you guess the location from Lord Of The Rings?
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Wellington is also where some of NZ's richest live.....on Mount Victoria which has views overlooking the whole of Wellington. There's a public cable car which takes you from the city to the top of Mount Victoria for the views for some of the residents there, private cable cars are not unheard of, you buy them along with your house and only you can use them to take you from the bottom of the mount right to your front door! Fancy that!