A Green Parrot and old friends.

A Red Carpet Weekend:
August 14 – Thursday

Thursday evening began my adventure with a Red Carpet tour group making their way through Wellington for the weekend. Vic James (who took me and the others to Hobbiton when we were in Auckland) and his wife Raewyn run Red Carpet Tours. They run monthly 12-day Lord of the Rings tours, covering New Zealand top to bottom. Since I’m working on a senior capstone project back home dealing with Lord of the Rings tourism in NZ, it only seemed fitting that I should try to hook up with RCT at some point during my stay. Luckily, since I’ve done one of their tours before and have kept in touch, Vic and Raewyn were very accommodating, and told me I was welcome to tag along with their August tour group as they made their way around Wellington.

I met up with the group at the Green Parrot, a restaurant right down at the end of Taranaki Street. It apparently was one of Viggo Mortensen’s favorite places to eat in Wellington (perhaps even in New Zealand), and his face graces two walls inside – he appears in photos on one wall, and in a giant mural on another. (Peter Jackson, Liv Tyler, and Samwise Gamgee join him as the LotR contingent in the mural, along with other famous New Zealanders I don’t recognize.)

It was (of course) pouring on my walk down, but luckily my skimpy umbrella and various awnings kept me relatively dry. I spotted Josephine through the window, and we embraced, jumping up and down, as soon as I got inside. Josephine, a Taiwanese woman, was part of my “fellowship” back in July 2005, when we did our first RCT together. Hugs from Raewyn followed, as well as introductions to the rest of the tour group.

The group consisted of 8 tourists, along with Vic and Raewyn. Josephine was one, and I can say she hasn’t changed at all since I last saw her three years ago. There was Charlotte, from Hamburg, Germany, who is here in New Zealand for a year on a working holiday. There was Lisa, from L.A., who had been in NZ for a couple of weeks already, and joined the tour only the day before it left Auckland. There was Echo, a young girl from California who works at Disneyland for a living. There was Mary, who currently resides in Dusseldorf, Germany, and was on her third tour with Red Carpet. There was Susi, currently of Italy, who also is on her third tour with RCT. Lastly there were Anthony and Dulce. Anthony, from England, and Dulce, from Portugal, met on a Red Carpet tour in 2006, fell in love, and just got married in July. They were on this second tour for their honeymoon. How cute!

I had a great time getting to know people over dinner (I had a yummy omlette), and catching up with Josephine and Raewyn.

Erica Challis, who I met briefly on my last tour, and her husband joined us for dinner. Erica played a large role in theOneRing.net, as well as all the early fan stuff regarding Lord of the Rings (see my Hobbiton entry further back). Turns out she has a journalism degree from Massey, and knows most of the teachers I have up there now. Very cool. We chatted for a bit about journalism, and about various jobs she’s had over the years. It was fun.

After having our feed, chatting for a bit, and being entertained by the Maori party one table over who serenaded us with a ukulele and traditional songs all evening, we decided to call it a night. We all piled into Vic’s Mercedes Sprinter, and he dropped me off at the Cube before they all headed back to their hotel.

I was to meet them the next morning for a fun-filled day in Wellington.