Thursday, November 15, 2001
A Fan Adventure - Xoanon @ 09:37 PST
My name is Peter and I just wanted to relate the events surrounding the LOTR ticket sales in Auckland, NZ. Me and my two mates Paul and Daryl lined up at 8:30 pm on Wednesday night. The tickets were due to go on sale 7:30 the next morning. It was freezing cold, raining and gales force winds blew our meagre blankets away but we were not perturbed. Shortly thereafter the first of the media showed up. TV3's nightline interviewed us, showing footage of the trailer and footage of us singing (I had my guitar) and goofing around. They left and we set in for the long haul. We were shortly joined by a LOTR nut who had read the book 37 times. In due course five more people were to join us (bringing the total number to an ironic 9). This little Fellowship braved the elements and saw the night through. By 6 am the media started to flock to us. Being first in line the attention was focused on us. We were interviewed by 97.4 Classic Hits radio station live, we were broadcast live on TV1's Breakfast Show. TV3 showed up again and took footage of us and we will be on their news hour at 6 pm tonight. TV1 showed us on the midday news show and will do so again tonight at 6. We were interviewed by another radio station IRN News and Sport. Lastly the national paper The New Zealand Herald sent a photographer along and we are to appear in tomorrows edition! At long last the doors were opened and I was first in to get possibly the first ticket in the country! Cool.

Anyway that was our little adventure waiting for the LOTR tickets and more than made the freezing our butts off and getting very wet worthwhile!

---