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Day 4 Shire Reckoning: Hevensday, Foreyule 8th. -- Ohakune to Wellington via Mt. Doom & River Anduin
On the way to Wellington, had good Weather and clear view old Mt. Ruapehu. Breathtaking! Stopped and took amazing pictures. Sister volcano which was used for long shots of Mt. Doom shrouded in cloud still....I guess being Mt. Doom comes with some risks.
Drove by a site used for the River Anduin and the Pillars of Argonath. I got a different shot since you couldn't see the pillars site from the road anyway.
Also stopped at the ranch of the lead Black Rider and the riding double for Aragorn and some of the Rohirrim.
Awesome horse ranch and shot lots of footage. Saw some truly amazing horsemanship and how they got the horses to look wild when they were really calm. They also showed us how they got horses to be acclimated to working on in a movie environment or to ride in among people without getting spooked. Also was treated to a horse demonstration by the riding double of Arwen (Jane). She is beautiful, very elegant, and able, and after seeing her I wouldn't say she was the riding double, I'd say she was Arwen on horseback....and that Arwen on foot was doubled by someone else. Got to meet a Nazgul horse and Asfaloth!
After we got back on the coach the guide told us that Viggo Mortensen was at the ranch at the same time riding one of his horses. Cue women on bus going nuts. I could only imagine 50 crazed women chasing him as he galloped away in terror. That's what he gets for being a big shot international movie star....us fat fanboys don't have that problem. We also stopped at the quarry where Helm's Deep and the Minas Tirith streets were filmed. We didn't stay long as folks were antsy to get into Wellington.
We got into Wellington and checked into the West Plaza Hotel and then a bit of pandemonioum as we tried to figure out where everything was and locate our tickets for tonight's events. Turns out everything is like 3 blocks from our hotel! Fantastic! All of downtown Wellington is decorated with ROTK stuff. There are Nazgul mounted on fell beasts looking down from buildings onto the street. At the Embassy Theater, where the premiere will happen, the Witch King awaits.
There is a massive arrow sticking out of Molly Malone's pub opposite a gigantic poster of Legolas shooting his bow on another building. A sign underneath the arrow reads, 'Legolas better aim for a Guinness'..."Ha," I think, "that nancing elf couldn't bear anything so stout...it'd be wine coolers for him for sure."
Anyway, we head to the Paramount Theater for a poetry reading featuring Viggo Mortenson. We get in a long line to get in the theater but it works out. Turns out we're standing right in front of the New Zealand orchestra's guitar player and we are attending the LOTR symphony later, so he fills us in on how cool it will be and we chat about how it is to work with Howard Shore. He has nothing but good things to say. He mentions that they are trying to open a film and music school down in Wellington.....hmm film school is sounding better and better.... We finally get in for the poetry reading...I think there might be 5 or 6 guys in the entire audience, no joke. Anyway, a Maori professor introduced the poets and presented Viggo with a piece of Maori artwork and then went into a traditional Maori greeting which consisted of 3 parts. The first part consisted of an invitation to think of things in the spiritual realm, the second part consisted of words of praise for all the presenters, the third part was a sung Maori Lament....totally awesome! All the poets were exceptionally good with terrific imagery. Viggo's poetry reminded me most of the stream-of-consciousness stuff that Jim Morrison or Jack Kerouac used to dish out. The reading ended to much praise, and now headed to what I was sure would be the highlight of the night! But on the way out I bumped into Richard Taylor who, very graciously, gave me his autograph and we had a quick chat about garage kits! Too much! I was ecstatic! Headed all the way to the Michael Fowler center walking on clouds. There was a massive crowd gathered outside waiting for the stars to show, so Penny and I went inside and I went looking for programs. Penny pointed out Alan Lee standing in the lobby, apparently nobody knew who he was. Then clustered next to him were Richard Taylor and Dan and Chris Hennah! I approached cautiously and got to talk to all of them! Go me! Got a picture with Alan Lee. I look like a goofball as usual....I shouldn't be in any pictures...but oh well.
(Just over Penny's head is Dan Hennah) Moved inside to our seats which are better than I could have hoped for. 4th row center! The crowd was already just rearing to go. P.J. And company came in along with a lot of the cast members. They received lots of cheers and applause from the crowd. Then the lights dimmed and Howard Shore came out and the orchestra started tuning.
Then they struck the first notes of "Prologue" from FOTR and the choirs kicked in. You could hear a loud gasp from the crowd as everyone was just stunned at how awesome the sound was. 50 times better than the CD easily. Time simply flew! I was moved to tears several times by just the music. Had a young boy soloist who was just incredible and what really stood out was this really loud and dischordant metal clanging during the Isengard leitmotif, someone later told me it was chains and mallets on Piano strings or something....it sounded exactly like the inside of blacksmith's shop! Just perfect for Isengard. Howard Shore is a genius! Intermission came entirely too soon. But it was over just as quickly and we returned to our seats in time for the next movements. Fantastic stuff from TTT. What really stood out was this Mezzo Soprano singing "Evenstar". She was a tall woman and very good looking and when she started to sing, it didn't take a whole lot of stretching to see an elf up there. I thought to myself that between all the poetry reading and singing and music and beautiful scenery and camaraderie...this is probably as close to Rivendell as I'm ever going to get. They get to ROTK stuff too soon! I got to hear that for the first time since our trip started before the CD was released, and I didn't have a CD player with me. The Gondor leitmotif is awesome! The Shelob stuff sounds terribly scary...I hope P.J. unleashes horror hell on us! "The End of All Things" sounded like the biggest most impressive battle ever! Can't wait to see it. Viggo came out and sang a part for "Return of the King" (you mean he sings too? okay...now he's just trying to make us normal guys look bad). Then this vocal soprano got up and sang "Into the West" which we knew was the last song. Very very sad, this magical evening had to come to an end, but in that sense the song is very fitting. As it ended the audience went into sustained applause for at least 10 minutes without stopping! The sound of it was amazing. Howard did several curtain calls and after the second one it looked like he was crying! The emotion in the room was incredible. Here is this incredible artist surrounded by other brilliant artists and they all came together and delivered something unbelievable and we were all there to be able to share Howard's moment. I was so happy for him! Drained of emotion and hungry we headed to the Green Parrot Cafe, which Penny says was one of Viggo's favorite haunts because they serve food late. Good food, but I was getting very very tired. Got back to the hotel and crashed hard. Tomorrow Lorien, Mt. Victoria, and Isengard! |
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Day 5