For more than a decade, passengers at New Zealand’s Wellington Airport have boarded flights below the figures of two giant, hovering eagles from the Hobbit films, one bearing a bellowing wizard Gandalf.
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With 50-foot (15-metre) wingspans and weighing 2,600 pounds (1.2 tonnes) each, the sculptures that hover in the terminal have delighted tourists and scared children since 2013. Their tenure was eventful – one became unmoored from its fixings during a severe earthquake in 2016, and plummeted onto the terminal floor below. No one was hurt.
But this month the majestic creatures, which underscore the capital city’s connection to Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings and Hobbit films, will depart the terminal for good, Wellington Airport announced on Monday.
“It’s been quite a Lord of the Rings-heavy storytelling theme in here,” said airport chief executive Matt Clarke. “Now we’re looking to change that to something new.”
“It breaks my heart,” said one traveller, Verity Johnson, who sat beneath a grasping eagle claw in the food court on Monday. The sculptures had impressed her since she was young. “Please, please reconsider.”
“Taking them away is un-New Zealand,” joked another airport visitor, Michael Parks.