A new arrival at Wellington International Airport
Visitors to the Wellington International Airport are set to get a surprise when they disembark from international flights.
Wētā Workshop has unleashed its creativity to build a fantastical luggage conveyor belt in the international arrivals terminal. And it’s something you could only really find in Wellington, AKA, the middle of Middle Earth.
It’s covered with crazy creatures and oddball items, including a Thunderbirds Are Go character, a monster bursting out of a box, a prehistoric creature skull and a fantastical set of golf clubs (that look suspiciously like dwarf weapons).
There’s even a security x-ray scanner, which has busted a dodgy cave-dweller trying to smuggle in a fish.
Wētā Workshop CEO and Design and Effects Supervisor Richard Taylor said it’s been a terrifically fun build:
“We are thrilled to team up once again with our friends at Wellington International Airport and open this fantastical luggage conveyor belt for the enjoyment of arriving passengers to our wonderful city. It’s covered in the sorts of quirky creatures and characters we enjoy making at Workshop every day. We airfreight these sorts of things all over the world on a fairly regular basis so this conveyer belt is not too far from the realms of the imagination.”
Wellington Airport General Manager of Marketing, Greg Thomas, said “Giving visitors and locals a great experience as they arrive or depart from our cultural city is important for the airport. Wellington offers wonderful attractions like the Wētā Workshop tours and being able to delight arriving passengers with a taster is a great way to commence their visit. We aim to make sure our experience reflects our cultural capital which is surrounded by nature and Wētā Workshop’s installation is an outstanding way to achieve that."
Wētā Workshop Tourism Manager, Wellington Ian Phillips said the installation follows the success of previous projects at the airport.
We’ve been blown away by the response from people visiting Wellington International Airport who have seen our large-scale installations like Smaug, Gollum and Gandalf riding a great eagle. We know this installation is going to strike a chord with international visitors because, just down the road in Miramar, an incredible 150+ thousand people visit the Wētā Cave every year. It’s wonderful to be able to give visitors a taste of what they’ll discover in Wellington within minutes of getting off the plane.