Heads up, people - Walk To Rivendell event is only one more week away, ...

...so get those costumes out of the mothballs cupboard, polish that sword to a shine, and brush that hair on your feet.

At 10:00am on December the 15th, we all meet at the Kaitoke Forks Carpark (by the Swingbridge), and at 10:15am, we walk! Bring picnics, for eating/sharing on the lawn in front of Rivendell itself. For full details, check the previous post at:

https://www.welly-moot.com/2018/11/15-december-2018-picnic-at-rivendell.html


If you're stuck for a costume, drop Kathy a line the One Room Museum's facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/theoneroomfanmuseum/

... she has a lot of spares, and is happy to lend them out for Koha.



No excuses - See you all there!

  - Jack, Alex, Kathy, Kay, and Emily


PS - In case of bad weather cancellation, check back here on www.welly-moot.com (also on the facebook page)

15 December 2018 - Picnic at Rivendell

Hi Welly-Moot crew, just a reminder about our upcoming picnic at Rivendell (aka Kaitoke) on Saturday 15 December.

The plans are:

• Meet at the Kaitoke Forks Carpark (by the swing-bridge), at 10:00am
• Adjust costumes (Hell yes! In costume through the rainforest!)
• Kathy's bringing along costumes from the One Room Fan Museum too, so there will be plenty for everyone
• At 10:15 or so, we cross the swing-bridge, and walk the main track. It'll take about 30-45 minutes, although possibly a bit longer depending on costume.
• The end of the walk will get us to the Rivendell grassy lawn, where we unpack our picnics
• After the picnic, all join for a Welly-moot group photo by the Archway.
• Plus anything else we can think of on the day, or before. We're open to ideas, so drop us a line anytime!

Afterwards, if people have any energy left, Emily has invited us to her place for a cuppa, chill out and debrief! Details provided on the day.

We've prepared a poster (thanks Kay). Feel free to circulate it or post it anywhere someone might be keen.

See you Dec 15th - hopefully the weather gods and all the Ents and whoever will give us glorious weather! Cheers, Kathy

Announcement! - Next Event: Walk to Rivendell - December 15, 2018

The Welly-moot, in association with The One Room Fan Museum, presents:

- Walk to Rivendell, 2018 -

We've got a fun event coming up for everyone - another visit to Rivendell in Upper Hut's Kaitoke Park. We haven't met there as a group since the official opening of the Elven Archway, courtesy of LOTR Tour operator Ted Guise. I personally haven't been there for over a year, and I feel like a good walk! Who will join us?

The archway

 Here's the plan:

• Meet at the Kaitoke Forks Carpark (by the swing-bridge), at 10:00am
• Adjust costumes (Hell yes! In costume through the rainforest!)
• At 10:15 or so, we cross the swing-bridge, and walk the main track. It'll take about 30-45 minutes, although possibly a bit longer depending on costume.
• The end of the walk will get us to the Rivendell grassy lawn, where we unpack our picnics
• After the picnic, all join for a Welly-moot group photo by the Archway.

Plus anything else we can think of on the day, or before. We're open to ideas, so drop us a line anytime!


The final plans will be published here as the time comes closer, so check back here often. Please share on your social media as well - the more the merrier!

  - Jack

 In the meantime, here's a few photos from the original opening, to whet your appetites.

Fish-eye lenses are awesome

The event was well-attended!

The last stragglers on the path

Four heroes, ready for battle

The professor himself, and Lord Elrond

Where there's a picnic, there'll always be hobbits

Using Legolas' White Knives as picnic cutlery? Sure, why not!

Looks like meat's back on the menu. We don't want to exclude anyone. Baby-food anyone?

Alex on the bridge with Gandalf. She did pass.

ROTK at the Roxy Saturday 22 September

Hi fellow Wellymooters

Just checking in to remind you about The One Room Fan Museum's first birthday party next Saturday, 22 September, at 6pm, 4 Corunna Ave, Newtown, Welly.

Some of us are going to dress up in costume and go to ROTK at the Roxy, screening at 1pm. The show is sold out, but I have two tickets left if you contact me at theoneroomfanmuseum@gmail.com (first in ...). Some of you may already be going - in costume I hope - and we'll see you there!

If you are coming to the movie in our party, come to the Museum around 11 and we'll robe up together and have a laugh, maybe some photos ...

I remember going to that Hobbit and LOTR marathon that Jack organised in 2016 (I only went to the LOTR films, though). I couldn't believe how many people were there in costume - and that's what started me on the pathway to the Museum. So it will be nostalgic and so cool to be part of Wellymoot now.

After the Museum birthday, what should we do next? Emily, you talked about a walk at Rivendell and back to yours - shall we fix a date?

Hope to see you at the cinema and/or the party next Saturday. Here's a couple of nostalgic photos from Jack from the last session - thanks to whoever provided the photos to Jack. Best wishes, Kathy

The One Room Fan Museum turns One!

Greetings Welly-Mooters. Kathy here on my first post, courtesy of Jack. I’m inviting you all to join me in celebrating the one-year birthday of The One Room Fan Museum.

You’re welcome to join me by going in costume to the 1pm screening of ROTK at the Roxy. I have pre-bought 9 tickets (and one for me) – first in first served - let me know. Meet at the Museum at 11 for morning tea and robing (happy to provide costumes if you don’t have your own), and on to the Roxy by 1pm.

Then, from 6pm (or once we get home from the Roxy), there will be a bit of a party to toast the Museum’s birthday. You’re welcome just to come to the party if you prefer.

And if you can’t make it, just raise your glass to the Museum at the same time as you wish happy birthday to Bilbo and Frodo.

Best wishes, all Kathy

Welly-moot #6.4 will be held on July 30

Another meeting coming up, back at the Embassy. We're repeating the theme of last meeting - this time we'll actually get to it.

Reality vs Metaphor
In The Hobbit, the Rock Giants are portrayed as real in the films, but many believe they are just metaphors - what are are thoughts on this? And are there any other instances of this in the stories?

Rock Giants - are they real or did Bilbo imagine them?

So, if you're keen on a good fun afternoon with a bunch of fellow coffee drinkers and cake eaters, come join, and add your $0.02 worth to the discussion - or just come and sit back and enjoy the bun-slinging.

Usual time, usual place: 2:00pm, upstairs at the Embassy cafe. Entry is free and gives lifetime membership as a Welly-mooter, but bring money for coffee and cakes.

  - Jack & Alex

Welly-moot #6.3 report - Forgot to discuss the theme. Oops.

The group met at the Embassy Cinema today, and although our intentions were to discuss the set theme of Reality vs Metaphor (were Bilbo's Rock Giants real or were they a metaphor for something entirely different?), in the end we kinda never got around to it. The discussion went a lot of different ways instead, everything from politics (VERY briefly), various educational models around the world, Bela Lugosi's role in early horror films, and yes, some Middle-earth.

The group was pretty relaxed about it all. Coffee was drunk, cake was demolished. Last week was Armageddon, so that was a nice catch-up since most people had been to it - Wellington's annual Sci-Fi and Fantasy convention at the Westpac Stadium. And speaking of Sci-Fi, the Wellington Sci-Fi group came and sat beside us in the cafe and started their monthly meeting as well. Looks like a good place to hold these things, I guess.


We'll be meeting again in a few months, perhaps we'll get around to the theme then! The silver lining of today's meeting - it's great to see that this is such a social event, and I hope it always stays that way.


Till next time!

Final date change - Welly-moot #6.3 will be held on June 11 (not June 4).

Due to the Sci-Fi/Fantasy convention Armageddon being held over the same weekend as our original Welly-moot scheduled meeting, we've decided to change our moot day to June the 11th.

Apart from the date change, we now also have a fun theme for the discussion:


Reality vs Metaphor
In The Hobbit, the Rock Giants are portrayed as real in the films, but many believe they are just metaphors - what are are thoughts on this? And are there any other instances of this in the stories?

Rock Giants - are they real or did Bilbo imagine them?

So, if you're keen on a good fun afternoon with a bunch of fellow coffee drinkers and cake eaters, come join, and add your $0.02 worth to the discussion - or just come and sit back and enjoy the bun-slinging.

Usual time, usual place: 2:00pm, upstairs at the Embassy cafe. Entry is free and gives lifetime membership as a Welly-mooter, but bring money for coffee and cakes.

Finnish Tolkien Society Kontu - WorldCon announcement

While we're announcing international Tolkien events we're invited to, there's a cool few things on in Finland later this year as well. The New Zealand Tolkien has enjoyed a great friendship with the Finnish Kontu in the past, and we would very much like to continue that relationship!

I received a message from them a little while ago - check it out!

Greetings from the Finnish Tolkien Society Kontu!

As you most likely know by now, the 75th Worldcon will be held in Helsinki, Finland from the 9th to the 13th of August. It is quite probable that many Tolkien enthusiasts from around the world are going to attend the con, so we thought that it could be fun to organize something for our international friends. The plan is to have a big picnic at Suomenlinna (http://www.suomenlinna.fi/en/) to which we'll invite every Tolkien fan that attends the con. It's a great and easy opportunity to meet Tolkien fans from all around the world, and we hope that you could inform your society's members about this.

The picnic will be held on Tuesday, the 8th of August. We chose the day before the con because people will be a bit too busy during the actual con to have time for an extra activity – and many people are arriving to Helsinki on the previous day anyway.

Suomenlinna is really easy to access from central Helsinki, and provided that the weather is good, it's a really nice place for hanging out with friends – in fact, our society goes there once every year with other speculative fiction groups! So while additional information will be given later (I'll create a Facebook event soon!) it'd be nice if your society could mention this to its members – we hope to see plenty of international Tolkien representation at the con!


With warm greetings,

Janne Seppänen
Secretary of The Finnish Tolkien Society Kontu
sihteeri@suomentolkienseura.fi

So let me know (or email them directly!) if you have any interest in attending this event!

  - Jack

Tolkien Society UK announcement - Oxonmoot 2017

Just for the record - any members of the Welly-moot Tolkien group here in New Zealand are automatically invited to a lot of the annual events hosted by the UK Tolkien Society, including the Oxonmoot.

Oxonmoot is an annual event hosted by The Tolkien Society which brings together around 200 Tolkien fans, scholars, students and Society members from across the world. It has been held annually in Oxford since 1974 on a weekend close to Bilbo and Frodo’s birthday (22^nd September) and is the key event in the Society’s annual calendar – if you want to come to any Tolkien event, come to Oxonmoot.

For more details, check their website here:

https://www.tolkiensociety.org/events/oxonmoot-2017/


Let me know if you're interested in finding out more!

  - Jack

Moot Report: Welly-moot #6.1 - Picnic at Rivendell

The first Welly-moot meeting in 2017 was held today at Rivendell. We had a bit of wind but otherwise very summery weather for our picnic, with plenty of sunshine. We enjoyed meeting up with friends and families along with Welly-mooters. Kay was the first to arrive, and she had brought a lovely Hobbittish basket full of food. Thanks Kay! And since everyone else did the same, there certainly was plenty to go around!

After we enjoyed sharing in everyone's scrumptious treats and conversation, and singing with guitar by Daniel, we took off for a mini-tour of Rivendell, guided by Jack. We enjoyed the summery afternoon with sunshine which we hadn’t had for a long time in Wellington.

Thanks to everyone who came today. And anyone who couldn’t make it today, see you at next meeting at the Embassy Theatre on Sunday 26 March. We will post more details next month.

Meanwhile, check out the photos!

Always beautiful at Rivendell

 

Food looking good, ladies! Also: Food! Looking good, ladies!

Heroically sucking in my stomach

Just a quiet cup of coffee, and a nice spot to drink it

Ever the tourguide

Through the sun shimmering - a vision, as a mirage, appeared at the gates of Rivendell. Lo, it was the lady Arwen herself!

We moved the tables back into the shade a number of times.

Always nice to have a bit of live music, guys! Thanks for bringing the guitar!

Picnic this Sunday 29th - get ready!

Heya everyone!

The Welly-moot picnic at Rivendell is on this weekend! At this stage everything is going ahead. It looks like the weather is being kind to us - the Upper Hutt forecast is for dry weather, if a little windy. There should some sun, even. I know we could all do with some of that, lately!


I would love to hear from you if you're thinking of turning up - just to give me an idea of the numbers.

 So, if you're thinking of coming, can you drop me a line on jack@welly-moot.com please?



The plan is to meet at 11:00am, at the Kaitoke Regional Park, at the grassy field beside the Rivendell filming area.

However, if the weather is a bit wet, we're moving it to the camping area - I will try get some signs up, pointing the way once you get the the park. The ranger will also be made aware of our plans.


If you need directions, there's a Google Map at the end of this blog post.


Bring the following:
- Lunch
- A barbecue (we're not sure if anyone is bringing one yet, so PLEASE email me!)
- A costume if you have one,
- Soft swords (ie, not metal) if you have some, (no projectile weapons please!),
- As many people as you can find :)

Also, I will have the "Middle-earth" road signs with me - if you haven't preordered one, there will be spares there but please get in quick, as they will most likely sell out.  $15 for members, $20 for non-members.


If the weather turns REALLY bad, we may cancel, so please do keep an eye out on the blog or the facebook page before you come out. We will confirm in the morning, before 9:00am.

Hope to see you all there!

  - Jack


Oh, and PS - here's the map!




Bring

Sad news - the picnic is cancelled. :(

Really didn't want it to come to this, but we're cancelling the picnic this Sunday.

After the week we've all had, with earthquakes, tsunamis, storms, floods, tornadoes, and an uncertain weather forecast for Sunday, and a still-soaking-wet picnic ground around Rivendell, we've decided to call it off. It's not something we do lightly.

So, to repeat - the picnic is cancelled. We will announce a new date later, but expect it to be no earlier than January.

My apologies if you had a bunch of stuff planned - I know we were all really looking forward to it all.

There will be another day!

  - Jack

Picnic in a week - get ready!

Heya everyone!

The Welly-moot picnic at Rivendell is on in a week's time! At this stage everything is going ahead. I would love to hear from you if you're thinking of turning up - just to give me an idea of the numbers.

 So, if you're thinking of coming, can you drop me a line on jack@welly-moot.com please?


The plan is to meet at 11:00am, at the Kaitoke Regional Park, at the grassy field beside the Rivendell filming area.

However, if the weather is a bit wet, we're moving it to the camping area - I will try get some signs up, pointing the way once you get the the park. The ranger will also be made aware of our plans.


If you need directions, there's a Google Map at the end of this blog post.


Bring the following:
- Lunch
- A barbecue (we're not sure if anyone is bringing one yet, so PLEASE email me!)
- A costume if you have one,
- Soft swords (ie, not metal) if you have some, (no projectile weapons please!),
- As many people as you can find :)

Also, I will have the "Middle-earth" road signs with me - if you haven't preordered one, there will be spares there but please get in quick, as they will most likely sell out.  $15 for members, $20 for non-members.


If the weather is REALLY bad, we may cancel, so please do keep an eye out on the blog or the facebook page before you come out. We will confirm in the morning, before 9:00am.

Hope to see you all there!

  - Jack


Oh, and PS - here's the map!




Bring

Moot Report - Welly-moot #5.5 (September 25, 2016)

We had a fun meeting on Sunday the 25th of September. It was the start of Daylight Savings Time, but it seemed everyone remembered it in time, and no one was too late at the meeting because of it.

We started off with the usual greetings, and caught up with news and updates from everyone, with a quick chat as usual. Mooter Sarah had recently visited England's Oxford and visited Tolkien's favourite pub The Eagle and Child for a meal, and brought back a few souvenir postcards by Andrew Manson. Andrew, who was the Artist in Residence at the pub, had a writeup in the Oxfordshire magazine recently, which is available as a pdf file here.

--

The theme for this meeting was "the diverse landscapes of Middle-earth". Everyone brought their books, tablets or their knowledge of Middle Earth. We talked about landscapes, forests, and mountains. We enjoyed sharing our ideas and thoughts.

Alex was particularly interested in the “stone-giants” from The Hobbit; there is not much explanation in Tolkien’s books and the ambiguousness of their existence; are they from Bilbo's dreams, or are they real? Kris found some good photos with rock falls, where it is believed that Tolkien got the idea of the “rock-giants” and found an article why they play games by throwing rocks, and risking their lives.

--

Next Welly-moot meeting will be the last meeting this year already. It will also be the last meeting hosted by Jack and Alex. As it was announced on the last post, we will be stepping down from being the main hosts of the meetings. We have a few Welly-mooters who have have got their hands up, to take over from us. But don’t worry, we won’t disappear. We will still be attending Welly-moots.

Before we go though, we decided to have a picnic lunch on Sunday 20 November at Rivendell in Kaitoke Park in Upper Hutt. We will try to have some attractions on the day as well - maybe a swords demonstration, a guided forest walk, best costume competition, or whatever. Come and join us! We will post the details when it is closer.

  - Alex & Jack

PS - please note the new date for next meeting - it was originally set for November 27th, but it's now November 20th

Welly-moot #5.3 Report

The Welly-moot group met yesterday at the Embassy Cinema. We have new members whom we met at the Middle-Earth movie marathon in March this year. Welcome Kay, Molly and Helena!

Unusually, we didn’t have a specific Tolkien topic for this meeting. We started as usual with a round table discussion, with updates, and we shared our experiences of the movie marathon. After that, it became a very enjoyable non-topic discussion.

We discussed the upcoming Armageddon Expo in Wellington next weekend; the excellent Hobbit Location Tour "Hairy Feet Hobbit Locations" in Piopio Waitomo; the latest Superhero movies (X-man, Avengers, Captain America, Superman vs Batman, etc), TV shows, costumes, etc. The Welly-mooters are a wealth of geeky knowledge, and we had no problem filling the afternoon with a wide range of movies, TV series or characters.

Some updates for everyone.

• There is a Middle-earth-themed LARP event (Live Action Role Playing) in Queenstown later this winter. We will update as soon as we have more details, on this site. In the meantime, if you're interested, follow them on facebook.
• The new Rivendell Rebuild project for Welly-moot is the Bilbo bench/statue in Kaitoke Park. We have two wonderful Sculptors to give us a hand. We will be pushing this project forward this year!
• We're also organising a Welly-moot craft meeting, hopefully for later this year. The idea is to have Kim Beaton (who you may have met at the Marathon) show us how to sculpt a beautiful miniature Hobbit door, to decorate your garden with. There will be somecosts associated with that, so will keep everyone updated as we go.

The next Welly-moot meeting is to be a mid-winter party like we did last year. The date will be Sunday the 31st of  July. It will be fun so don’t miss it.

Also, some Welly-mooters are going to the Armageddon with their own costumes this weekend. We (Alex & Jack) will be going on Monday the 6th, if all goes well. See you there!


   - Alex & Jack

That was one successful marathon!

It's finished. It's done. We came, we watched, we survived (most of us). All six extended Middle-earth movies in a row, in a single sitting. Truly, the end of all things.


I hope everyone enjoyed the event as much as we did! Everything went right, from the chosen date of Good Friday, March 25th (which won't happen again until the year 2157!), to the fantastic venue The Roxy Cinema. Thank you again for hosting this for us, you were marvelous!

In fact, a few thank you's are in order.

Thank you first and most importantly of all, to the Roxy Cinema for all their support, and in particular to Alice, who helped so much the whole way through; to Phil and Valentina for supporting it throughout the planning and preparation stages; and to Richard for keeping things flowing at the event itself! And of course to the other, invisible, behind-the-scenes staff who set up, cooked, and cleaned up afterwards for us. You all did a great job!

Thank you to the Roxy also for the amazing prizepacks both before as well as during the event. And of course congratulations to the prizewinners!

Anna receives her prize.

Thank you to the Miramar Events Trust, for you support, and assistance talking to the media.

Thank you to the Weta Workshop, and in particular to Tania Rodger, for setting up the venue in true Weta style.

Thanks to Daniel Tararo and Kris McMeans who blogged, tweeted, facebook, and most importantly, periscoped their way through the event, with live interviews for the world to watch.

Thanks to Erica, Wilson and Luke for recording the event for your documentary. Let me know when it's available to watch somewhere!

Thank you to Chewy from Wellington Rover Tours for supplying the courtesy shuttle, for getting people There And Back Again, and also for printing the much appreciated Survivor's Certificates. They will make great reminders of this mega event.

We lived!

Also thank you to Mojo Coffee for making sure there was enough caffeine to go around for the fans!


A HUGE thank you to all the special guests who came and honoured us with their presence - Jamie Selkirk (with Oscar!), Daniel Reeve, Daniel Falconer, Peter Hambleton, Sanit Klamchanuan, Kim and Warren Beaton, and Sadwyn Brophy. You made yourself so very available to the fans, with conversation, photos, autographs, and (to Daniel Reeve in particular) with your amazing skills.

A special thank you to Jed Brophy for being there right throughout the event, and getting just as tired as the rest of us! Your dedication is amazing!

A HUGE thank you from me (Jack) to the rest of the Welly-moot committee - Cinnamon, Alex, and Kris. Cinnamon, I forgot to mention you in the speech before the first movie - but I couldn't have done it without you. Alex, you were always by my side. And Kris, my costume looks amazing, thanks to you!

And last, but not least, thank you so much to the amazing fans we managed to convince to part with a not-insignificant amount of money, some who came dressed up, some who flew from halfway across the world, and at least one who walked about 40kms to get to the cinema on time. Your dedication to these films is always amazing, and knowing that support existed made the efforts to organise this so much easier.


Thank you all - I for one, enjoyed this event immensely! I trust everyone else did also!

   - Jack Machiela
 

Tomorrow's the big day! One last FANTASTIC announcement!

The event starts at 12:30pm, Thursday. That's less than 15 hours away!

Apart from the best series of movies ever, the Roxy cinema has been completely redecorated by Weta Workshop's very own Tania Rodger. Unfortunately she won't be present during the event but there will be some other very cool people there.

I can now confirm that the MC of the event will be none other than JED BROPHY himself!

But there's more! Jed will not only be there to greet us at the start, but will be there throughout the event! This man is not only more characters in the two trilogies than anyone else, but he's also obviously the actor most dedicated to the fans!


I probably won't make any other announcements, but there are more surprises happening throughout the event, so be ready!

See you all there. My costume is ready - is yours?

  - Jack

Marathon Event Timings

Here is a complete timeline of the events planned for this mega-marathon.

Thursday March 24th:

• 12:00 – Rover Courtesy Bus leaves from iSite (20 seats)
• 12:30 – Daniel Reeve at Roxy, Calligraphy Demonstration
• 13:00 – Welly-moot competition prize handover
• 14:00 – HOBBIT 1: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY
• 17:03 – Break
• 17:15 – HOBBIT 2: DESOLATION OF SMAUG
• 20:22 – Dinner Break with Daniel Falconer
• 21:15 – HOBBIT 3: BATTLE OF THE FIVE ARMIES

Friday March 25th:

• 00:00 – Midnight Break
• 00:15 – LOTR 1: FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING
• 04:03 – Break
• 04:15 – LOTR 2: THE TWO TOWERS
• 08:11 – Breakfast with Kim and Warren Beaton
• 09:00 – LOTR 3: RETURN OF THE KING
• 13:24 – Survivor's Lunch - Handout of Souvenir Certificates
• 14:30 – Rover Courtesy Bus returns to iSite

Note that the movie start-times will be exact; some of the other times may be approximate.

As you can see we have some amazing VIPs coming, and there is one other special guest expected, who will be MC-ing throughout the event; I will announce him VERY soon!


  - Jack

Additional excitement for the event...

Will and Erica, two of our longtime Welly-mooters are currently making a documentary on the power of myths, and will be on hand to ask the Marathonners' a few questions.

Wilson Sze and Erica Brooks, producers of "An Underground Odyssey" - an educational documentary that explores the power and applicability of myth and fantasy in people's lives - will be present during the Middle-Earth Marathon to document the event. As Tolkien fans themselves, they will be interviewing attendees with questions such as, “What do you love about the LOTR/The Hobbit stories?”, “Where did you travel from to attend this event?”, “What is it about Tolkien’s Middle-Earth that you love so much?”, “Who is your favourite character in Middle-Earth?”, “Which character can you most relate to and why?”, “How has Middle-Earth impacted your life?” The interviews will be featured in the documentary, along with footage of fans in their costumes, capturing the warmth and passion of Middle-Earth fandom. If you would like to be interviewed and share your story, they would love to hear from you during the breaks and mealtimes!

 They'll be there during some of the breaks; if you feel like being record for all eternity, pop up to them and volunteer your services! The more the better!



Also: There are still a few places left on the FREE shuttle, so please don't be shy - drop me an email if you want to be picked up from (and dropped back to) town for the event. Contact me at jack@welly-moot.com.

  - Jack