Alexander G.
Yelp
After visiting Hobbiton and seeing the gorgeous vistas of New Zealand that embody the world of Tolkien, I was thrilled to be going to the Weta Cave and Workshop, where all the magic happened. This ended up being one of the disappointments of our trip, however, not without some positives.
If you aren't interested in reading the long experience below, my simple advice: come here on your own time with your own transportation, do the tour once, then explore Miramar and the studios on your own.
We opted for the There and Back Again tour, which includes a shuttle ride from downtown Wellington to Miramar and back. Our driver was nice and showed us some key areas of the city that have a special place to a fan of the films. First off, everything felt rushed right from the beginning. After a nice drive through Miramar and pointing out some of the studio buildings, we were dropped at the Weta Cave and Weta Workship with a strict timetable of when we'd be leaving (I personally don't like to think about departure before I even got to experience where I am).
We were checked in by our driver and given a chip to see a special documentary. We had a few minutes to look around at the Weta Cave, which is honestly just a gift shop of Weta Workshop's amazing replicas and collectibles. I definitely wanted some time to look here, but we were whisked away to the movie. There was no one else in the room. It was a great 26-min film about the history of the studio with interviews with key people, but it's something I could have watched on my own. After the film we again tried to look at the gift shop, but our tour was starting.
We went out with our group and tour guide. I'll leave his name out of it, but I wish we had had someone else. He was not from NZ and clearly moved there to be part of the studio and got stuck being a tour guide. He was apathetic, uninteresting, and robotic in what he talked about. More than once he stopped to listen to his radio and hurry us along because "there was a big important group here today throwing everything off". We did not care; we should've been treated like the only people there.
The tour itself isn't much. It's a room by room tour of the old Workshop (which is no longer used), where you get to see screen-used props. It was genuinely cool seeing this stuff, but again, it'd have been better if it was a self-guided museum. Our tour was done early, only about 35 min. When it was over and I realized that was it, I was further deflated. We headed back to the gift shop to get our souvenirs, which was honestly the highlight of the experience. I started looking with half an hour before our shuttle was scheduled to leave, when the driver comes in and asks if we're ready to go. I was privately very upset and set absolutely not, we'll be ready at the appointed time. This seemed to be an issue, but I took the time I was given.
We purchased some amazing things we'll each treasure forever, Weta Workshop makes detailed collectibles and replicas of their film creations as well as original things. The workers in the giftshop were great. The replica "museum" to the side had more screen-used props and miniatures. Everything is expensive, but worth the time that goes into it.
Our shuttle back took a leisurely route, and our nice driver from earlier then tried to sell us a bunch of different tour packages we weren't interested in. I would definitely come back to the Weta Cave for shopping, but will never take the tour again, especially the option with the shuttle.