Wednesday, October 15, 2003
What to do while the Premiere is playing - Tehanu @ 14:11 PST
Thoughts and plans from Phil Capper, who's organising the LOTR Homestays project for LOTR fans visiting Wellington during the premiere. (Any Wellington fans with a spare bed around the Premiere, conatct him at phillip.capper@webresearch.co.nz ) There are rumours that the Wellington City Council may be organising some entertainment but we don't know anything specific. Meanwhile,here's Phil's ideas:

Wellington will be VERY crowded for the premiere on December 1st. The question is – what to do while the move is actually playing. Here is the TORN suggestion.

5 minutes walk (one end) to 15 minutes (the far end) from The Embassy is Oriental Bay. This is a sandy beach with a promenade. For those who know Wellington, but haven’t been here recently, the beach has just had new loads of golden sand dumped on it and this has also transformed the far end that used to be rocky. Around the bay there are a number of cafes and restaurants.

The idea is that TORN people have a sort of gathering in the Oriental Bay area, using the beach and the cafes to informally get together. We are warning all the cafes that this will be happening, and that this involves a lot of people, so that they can be ready for an invasion. If the weather is good (50-50) we can hang out on the beach as well.

The cafes and restaurants are (in order of distance from The Embassy) are:

Vista (5 minutes, café and bar, sophisticated). Not actually on the bay, but only 2 minutes short. Smallish

Parade (8 minutes, café and bar, funky, arty, hobbity, includes courtyard). Opposite the swimming pool. Looks tatty from the outside, but a great atmosphere. At the beginning of the bay. Can hold 150

Tug Boat on the Bay. (9 minutes, restaurant and bar, not quite sophisticated). It actually is a converted, floating tug boat). Behind the swimming pool. smallish

Fisherman’s Plate (12 minutes, bar and family restaurant). In the converted band rotunda half way along the beach. spacious

Europa. (12 minutes, bar and café, sophisticated). Opposite the band rotunda. Smallish.

The White House (12 minutes. VERY upmarket. Sit down restaurant) Above Europa. Don’t even think about it unless you are dressed up (i.e not as an elf) and have a very large budget and aren’t in a hurry. Small.

All of these have very similar prices for drinks and nibbles. Vista and the Tug Boat are more expensive than the others for full meals

The weather is the big imponderable for this and the actual premiere. We can guarantee no snow and no frost, but just about anything else is possible in early December – and you can get just about everything within the same day. Here’s a very personal probability list (but based on living here for 30 years) for what to expect on December 1st.

Temperature - 18C plus or minus 4, 70%. Less than that 5%. More than that 25%
Rain – at some time during the day 60%. At some time in the period 4 pm to 10 pm. 35%
Hail. 1%.
Wind in excess of 30 knots. Almost certain. No, only joking. No, no, not joking.
Wind less than 10 knots. 25%.
Fog. No chance AT ALL.
Bright sun. 50-50
Averagish (cloudy, not windy, no rain, mild). Wellington doesn’t do average, especially in spring.