Lord of the Things

My Dear Fellows & Dear Princess Normal,

Jackson and Helen's trip has been very Tolkein-ey. I suppose this is understandable in a country that considers itself home to Middle Earth.

As it turns out, Jackson LOVES "Lord of the Rings" and "The Hobbit". Despite the fact that his mum clearly does not. "Och, those battles are so LONG," she moaned.

I'm sure I've had this same chat with the Princess. Some people just don't appreciate an epic battle. Unless it is an epic lip-sync battle. That would just be silly in Lord of the Rings.

So Jackson and Helen went to the Weta Caves and then on to a tour of LOTR and Hobbit shooting locations.

"Do you want to come?" said Caro.

But I declined on the grounds that all the really spectacular stuff was CGI, and that most likely they'd end up standing in a paddock while someone says, "Try to imagine Isengard, towering above you."

Five hours later, and they returned home. Helen and Caro seemed less than impressed. Jackson was beside himself with excitement though and the words tumbled from his mouth to tell me about Rivendell -

(Caro showed me a picture of a field)

- and Weathertop - 

(Caro showed me a picture of a hill)

- and Isengard -

(Caro showed me a picture of a paddock).

But it wasn't all like that. They also got the chance to have their pictures taken with Legolas's bow. All the same, Helen and Caro looked tired and fed up of Lord of the Rings*.

"Can we watch Lord of the Rings?!" said Jackson, "Can we???"

Because they are just lovely, they gave way, so Jackson watched "Fellowship of the Ring" while they studied magazines. I'm glad they chose to indulge him. He's a lad with a tremendous amount of imagination, as evidenced by this foil sculpture he made, after being inspired by the Weta special effects men.

I'm sure Tolkien would have approved.

S.

* The had one funny story from the tour. Apparently the cast had to be helicoptered in to all the isolated locations across NZ. All except Sean Bean, who has issues with heights. Poor Sean would have to HIKE to the location on foot. But apparently this led to the rest of the cast developing a game between themselves when flying anywhere. The name of the game was, "Who Can Spot Sean First?"