NZ2 - Weta Caves and a visit to the theatre

Since I’ve been in NZ it’s all been a bit of a whirlwind! I decided it was best to jump straight into work and after landing Monday night, went in on Tuesday morning.

I can’t talk about my job on here, if I did, they’d sack me! However, I’ll just say that I can see why films are being made out here. The facilities are the best I’ve ever seen, and I’ve worked for some big post houses in Soho. Words cannot describe how overawed I was being given tours of my new offices yesterday and getting to look at the stuff I’m working on. I hope I can live up to it all!

After lunch, we went for a short walk down the road to the corner shop, or "dairy" as they call it here,  which is right next to Weta Cave. The cave is a mini museum and shop, linked to the studio, offering a behind the scenes look at characters, props and displays from some of the biggest movies. You can find out a bit more here on their official site.

Here are a few snaps I took, we weren’t in there long, but I’ll definitely go back for some limited souvenirs to send home! Hobbitses feet keyring anyone?!

I thought I had escaped the inevitable jetlag after sleeping so well on my first night, I was proven wrong though! After my first day I was so tired, I retired to bed at 9pm, only to wake multiple times in the night, having bizarre dreams about being back home! I gave up at 3:30 the morning and spent the rest of the night chatting to friends and family back home in the UK! This gave me the opportunity to stand out on the deck as the sun came up, (even though it rained I didn’t mind!) I talked on skype to Dave, Ali and Sian and showed them the views. It was so lovely to see their faces peering back at me through the screen! So here is a photo of the first ferry leaving for the south Island in the morning! I promise I’ll get my better camera out this weekend when I do some exploring! There is so much to see.

In the evening, I went to The Circa Theatre after work. Dean had bought me a ticket to see, The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion. It's an account of the year following her husband's death, John Dunne and her daughter. I struggled with concentration having been up since 3:30, it's quite an intense 90 minute monologue, but the role was beautifully portrayed by Catherine Downes who is a very famous actress here. It was moving and very beautiful, I really liked her. 

So that's it for now, I'll leave you with the sign that we drive past on the way to work every morning, pretty cheesy, but I do quite like it, and it reminds me how lucky I am to be working on such a fantastic film every day. 

Hopefully I won't have to work too much this weekend, and I can go on some adventures with my better camera, I'm supposed to be watching my first All Blacks game tomorrow night. I'll let you know how it goes! 

XXX