An Unexpected Party

We turned up at The Roxy cinema for An Unexpected Party. This was a hobbit-themed evening, and we were greeted by a hobbit and a dwarf. We knew he was a hobbit because of the feet, the dwarf was a little on the tallish side. But he spoke dwarfish, so that was alright. Also present (in mufti) was Jed Brophy, who plays Nori in The Hobbit. The hobbit actor ran around asking anyone and everyone “who are all these people? Did you invite them? Is there anyone else to come?” and generally expressing concern that we’d eat all his food.

A concerned hobbit

The dwarf fellow tried (unsuccessfully) to convince us that the main character of the film was actually based on himself.

 

Nicola threatens a dwarf

The dinner was a buffet, with a selection of cold pies, cheeses, and pickles, as well as canapés (of a hobbit variety) being walked around by the regular Roxy staff. We were served mulled cider from a flagon.

Food, glorious food!

 Once we’d sated our appetites, we were invited into the cinema to watch a screening of the vlog compiled by Legolas (aka Orlando Bloom), amongst others, during the filming of the first film; including bits set in the Stone Street Studios in Miramar, on location throughout New Zealand, and back to Miramar for special effects and other stuff. One of the areas they showed was Hobbiton, which has been built as a permanent location this time (for The Lord Of The Rings they took it down and left the location exactly as they found it), to be used as a tourist attraction for the future. You can visit it now – it’s near Hamilton.

After the film we had more mulled cider and some haggis – another hobbit delicacy, apparently – and some pudding. The actors had gone home by this point so we didn’t hang around much longer, except to pose with Gandalf’s staff.

"You shall not pa...oh, it's YOU! OK, then!"

Party!!!

We had our housewarming party last night – DJ, bar, flashing lights, disco dancers, dry ice machines etc. and about 1,000 close personal friends.

OK, that’s not strictly true. Around a dozen people came for mulled wine and nibbles at 5pm on Sunday. As it had started raining and the wind blowing, mulled wine was very welcome to those coming in from the cold! Some folk were from Nicola’s work, others from various encounters in Wellington. Sadly, I have no friends of my own as yet. Note to self: must get friends.

One of the invitees is also a recent UK arrival, who works at the Carter Observatory, http://www.carterobservatory.org/ having previously worked just round the corner from us in the UK at the Greenwich Observatory. Having chatted for a while we have now made a plan to go and visit the observatory next weekend, then have lunch at the café there. We’ll be able to learn more about the Southern hemisphere’s constellations, and also have a look at the line-up of Venus, Mars and Saturn, which is particularly visible here. This visit will also give me the chance to go on the Wellington cable car http://www.wellingtoncablecar.co.nz/ which I’ve not done so far…so much to see and do, so little…wait, actually plenty of time!