Hobbit

Air New Zealand decorated a Boeing 777 plane with pictures depicting the movie of the Hobbit.  It landed at Wellington Airport which was quite a feat in that the runway is very short and usually large planes are not allowed.

Wellington became the Middle of Middle Earth for a few weeks leading up to the premier of the film.

The activities started on Saturday afternoon with a Hobbit Artisan Market at the park next to Te Papa Museum.

At the end of Courtenay Place near the Embassy Theater they placed a mural surrounding the building.

The red carpet went from Taranaki Street 500 meters down to the Embassy Theater.  Peter Jackson was there along with some of the stars such as Elijah Woods, Kate Blanchet, the twin Hobbits, and many of the dwarfs who are starring in the movie.  They are so made up in the movie that it was hard to recognize which star played which character.

Three nights before the premier they played that three Lord of the Ring movies outside in the park.

We went to the red carpet around 1:00 p.m. on November 28th and  already all the places next to the red carpet were taken.  We ended up going next to the stage at the end of the red carpet.  There were over 100,000 people who attended.

Kate Blanchet was there with her sons.

Wellington Airport was transformed with the Hobbiton Village surrounding the luggage belt.

Golum was also at the airport to greet the passengers.

November 28, 2012

Thanksgiving

Even though the New Zealanders don't celebrate Thanksgiving the American Senior Couples do.  Twelve of the Senior Couples from the North Island gather at the Institute Building for Thanksgiving which included turkey (cost $85.00), mashed potatoes, green salad and jello salad with the jello from America, rolls, and pumpkin pies (the canned pumpkin was also from the United States).  It was held the day after Thanksgiving which was technically Thanksgiving in the United States.  It is always nice to remember the traditional holidays.

All of our children got together at Kevin and Jeanette's, so we had the opportunity of use Skype to see all of them also celebrating Thanksgiving together.  We are indeed thankful for the 4 wonderful children we have been blessed with and the fantastic spouses they have married.  We are also blessed with 9 super cute grandchildren and look forward to meeting the two youngest (Miles and Bethany) when we return the end of February.

November 22, 2012