{"id":76803,"date":"2025-05-05T15:42:08","date_gmt":"2025-05-05T15:42:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/76803\/"},"modified":"2025-05-05T15:42:08","modified_gmt":"2025-05-05T15:42:08","slug":"giant-sculpture-of-gandalf-riding-an-eagle-departs-wellington-airport-for-good","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/76803\/","title":{"rendered":"Giant sculpture of Gandalf riding an eagle departs Wellington airport for good"},"content":{"rendered":"

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) \u2014 For more than a decade, passengers at New Zealand<\/a> \u2019s Wellington Airport have boarded flights below the figures of two giant, hovering eagles from the Hobbit films, one bearing a bellowing wizard Gandalf. <\/p>\n

With 50-foot (15-meter) wingspans and weighing 2,600 pounds (1.1 ton) each, the sculptures that hover in the terminal have delighted tourists and scared children since 2013. Their tenure was eventful \u2014 one became unmoored from its fixings during a severe earthquake in 2016, and plummeted onto the terminal floor below. No one was hurt. <\/p>\n

But this month the majestic creatures, which underscore the capital city\u2019s connection to Peter Jackson<\/a> \u2019s \u201cLord of the Rings\u201d and Hobbit films, will depart the terminal for good, Wellington Airport announced Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been quite a Lord of the Rings-heavy storytelling theme in here,\u201d said airport chief executive Matt Clarke. \u201cNow we\u2019re looking to change that to something new.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt breaks my heart,\u201d said one traveler, Verity Johnson, who sat beneath a grasping eagle claw in the food court on Monday. The sculptures had impressed her since she was young. \u201cPlease, please reconsider.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTaking them away is un-New Zealand,\u201d joked another airport visitor, Michael Parks.<\/p>\n

The eagles were crafted by the film props and effects company W\u0113t\u0101 Workshop, which created tens of thousands of props for the Oscar-winning fantasy films directed by Jackson — one of Wellington\u2019s best-known residents, who lives on an isthmus near the airport. The movies based on J.R.R. Tolkien<\/a> \u2019s beloved novels generated billions of dollars in tourism revenue for New Zealand and employed thousands of people in Wellington over the 15 years of the movies\u2019 production.<\/p>\n

But during the years the eagles have hovered in the terminal, Tolkien tourism has waned in Wellington \u2014 although the city will perhaps always be synonymous with Jackson\u2019s films. Guided tours still convey fans to the settings of famous scenes from the films and to visit production companies such as W\u0113t\u0101, which will create a new display for the airport, to be unveiled later this year, Clarke said.<\/p>\n

Travelers have until Friday to admire the birds, which will then be put into storage, Clarke said. He hopes the creatures \u2013 which each feature 1,000 3D printed feathers \u2013 will find a home at a museum.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a spectacular thing for little kids to see,\u201d Clarke said. \u201cEven your old, grizzled businessmen, they still pull out their phones and take a quick cheeky photo too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wellington Airport isn\u2019t losing its quirky side. An enormous sculpture of The Hobbit\u2019s gold-hoarding dragon, Smaug, will remain overlooking the check-in counters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) \u2014 For more than a decade, passengers at New Zealand \u2019s Wellington Airport have…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":76804,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3939],"tags":[4021,4020,4022,77,4179,20295,37767,37768,3943,704,37766,16,15,31017,263],"class_list":{"0":"post-76803","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-design","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-general-news","13":"tag-gymnastics","14":"tag-matt-clarke","15":"tag-michael-parks","16":"tag-movies","17":"tag-new-zealand","18":"tag-peter-jackson","19":"tag-uk","20":"tag-united-kingdom","21":"tag-wellington","22":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114455992277908850","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76803","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76803"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76803\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}