New Zealand Adventure, Day 11

Saturday, 6-Feb-2010

We flew out of Queenstown bright and early. Heidi saw us to the airport, checked our baggage for us, then we walked right onto the plane. Literally. No security check, no ID check, and the attendant at the door never even looked up.

We got a tour of Park Road Post and it is incredible! Apparently Peter Jackson and his partner, Fran Walsh were very involved in every step of design. One of the goals was to make it feel like a home instead of an office building, and that it does. A very large home owned by the well-off and even-keeled with fine fixtures but nothing gauche. Really comfortable. The sound studios and editing suites are mini-movie theaters. The largest has a huge console where four techs sit, twelve recliners down front, and four over-stuffed couches at the back, so the director and anybody else the director wants around, can be as comfortable as they wish. Each of the studios is actually a separate building, but the connecting tunnel is so short and well concealed you would only know if someone told you. Wellington is built on a major earthquake fault line, so the studios have to be separate buildings or they could tear everything apart if they collapsed.

I watched the NZI Sevens on television. After watching Rugby for a few hours, I've decided a few things. Some select items include that it's a lot more interesting than I thought, and American Football players are sissies. These rugby guys do the same kind of tackles and pile-ups and do it without pads of any kind. I mean seriously, dislocated limbs anyone? (To my surprise, the worst injury I saw appeared to be a strain.)

Anyway, that was Park Road Post. We came back here and discovered the NZ 7s were going on. This is a bit like "SuperBowl meets Mardi Gras and runs two days." If I understood correctly, there is this major Rugby tournament where a bunch of teams whittle themselves down from a bunch to just one. We watched a bit of the game last night, some in our room, some on a 30-ft digital display the city put in the middle of the shopping district (after closing off four city blocks). American Football players are sissies; that was about the only take-away I got from watching the games.

We asked someone dressed as Tweedle-Dee about the costume tradition, and she had her husband explained that some time ago someone came up with the costume idea and it exploded. "37,000 people attending a costume party," was how they summarized it. So, naturally, I had to run out after the games ended at 10 and get some video (some posted to Facebook).

Kristi met with her voice actors and did the voice recording Saturday. She also met her editor and we got a tour of Park Road Post Production. Kiwis are very literal people. We knew we were going to Park Road Post and I said to Kristi last week "What do you bet Park Road Post-Production is on Park Road?" Guess what? Yep, it's on Park Road :-)