WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) – For more than a decade, passengers at New Zealand’s Wellington airport have boarded flights below the number of two giants from the Hovering Eagles from the “The Hobbit” movie.
With a 50-foot (15 meters) wingspan and weighing 2,600 pounds (1.1 tons), the sculpture hovering to the terminal has been pleased by tourists since 2013 and scared children. No one was injured.
But this month, the majestic creatures highlighting the capital’s connections to Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit movies will leave the terminal for Wellington Airport, which was announced Monday.
“This was the Lord of the Rings of the Rings of the Rings,” said Matt Clark, the airport’s chief executive. “Now we’re trying to turn it into something new.”
“It breaks my heart,” said Verity Johnson, a traveler who sat underneath the eagle’s claws in the food court on Monday. The sculptures were moving her because she was young. “Please, please reconsider.”
“Take them away is a cruel Zealand,” joked Michael Parks, another airport visitor.
Reddit fans were equally disappointed, claiming they “almost cried” when they learned the news.
The Eagles were created by the Wētā Workshop, a film prop and effect company. The Wētā Workshop created tens of thousands of props for an Oscar-winning fantasy film directed by Jackson, one of Wellington’s most famous inhabitants who live in the mouth of the estuary near the airport. Based on JRR Tolkien’s beloved novel, the film generated billions of dollars in New Zealand’s tourism revenues and employed thousands of people in Wellington over 15 years of film production.
However, in the years the Eagles hovered to the terminal, Tolkien tourism has declined in Wellington, but the city is probably always synonymous with Jackson’s films. Guided tours are telling fans to the environment of the film’s famous scenes and visiting production companies such as Wētā, which will create new displays for the airport to be announced later this year, Clark said.
Travelers will need to praise the bird until Friday, and it will be kept, Clark said. He hopes that creatures, each featuring 1,000 3D printed feathers, will find a home in the museum.
“It’s an epic thing that little kids can see,” Clark said. “Even your old, grizzled businessmen, they still pull out their phones and take simple cocky photos.”
Wellington Airport has not lost its quirky side. The giant sculpture of the golden dragon Smaug from “The Hobbit” keeps overlooking the check-in counter.
