Wētā Workshop

New Zealand

Wētā Workshop in New Zealand is so, so fun! A must do for the creative and imaginative! The Wētā Workshop Unleashed tour takes you behind the scenes on how special effects are made for movies and so much more. It's just a really fun place from the brightly painted entrance hall to the gift shop known as the Wētā Cave. OMG. They had so much Lord of the Rings merchandise. I seriously wanted all of the things! They have more items here than at Hobbiton! 

Wētā FX artists have worked on some of the biggest movies and TV shows including the The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, Avengers, Avatar, and more. They've earned numerous awards - including 7 Oscars for the best visual effects. They brought characters such as Gollum, Kong, Neytiri and Caesar to life as well as created worlds like Middle-earth, Pandora, and more. These guys are the real deal!

I enjoyed the The Wētā Workshop Unleashed tour because I love movies especially fantasy and sci fi so I really liked seeing how some of the mind blowing sets I've seen on film are made and some of the props. I'm really not into horror films but learning about the special effects for those movies was one of my favorite parts.

Wētā has two workshop locations in New Zealand that you can visit - one in Auckland and one in Wellington. I visited the one in Auckland. The one in Auckland is near Sky Tower at 88 Federal Street on the 5th floor. The guided tour is 90 minutes. 

Our guide asked us not to over post too many photos so as not to ruin the surprise and experience for others which - I totally get. So I'm not posting anything you can't see on their own page. I took hundreds of photos! You should really check it out for yourself! If you already made it all the way to New Zealand - then why not?

In addition to the tour you can sign up for one of their hands on creative workshops as well. I did both the fantasy and the horror workshops. They both give you an opportunity to unleash your creativity and really just play. I loved how everyone created something unique.

The horror workshop ended up being my favorite. Go figure. We learned how to make flesh wounds. No two people created the same kind of wound. I created bloody scratch marks across my hand that I ended up keeping on all day which drew some alarming looks while I was out shopping on Queen street afterwards. So I must have done a good job! HAHA!

Visiting Wētā was some of the most fun I'd had in a while and I would definitely do it again. I'd love to visit the one in Wellington just to see the differences because from what I read they are not quite the same.