Friday, January 24, 2014

The Eagle Has Landed

It was all rock'n'roll on Monday night, as a 6.2 magnitude earthquake severely shoke the southern North Island.
There've been plenty of reports on the subject, but not so much on the incident of 'life imitating art', or perhaps 'art imitating a Jack Higgins novel'...
The quake was centred near Eketahuna, about 100km north of capital city Wellington, but still was able to bring down a 1-tonne Hobbit eagle from the ceiling of Wellington Airport!
Two eagles with 15m wingspans (built by Weta Workshop and modeled on the ones in the Hobbit trilogy) were hanging from the ceiling as part of an installation that also includes a giant Gollum. They were shaken so violently that one bird snapped free of its cables and fell onto a noodle canteen below. [Some uncharitable folk may feel that's appropriate for a noodle bar - having a giant eagle dump on it...!]
The eagle carrying Gandalf on its back remained securely fastened to its eight supporting cables.
So what's the future for these sculptures? Airport spokesman Greg Thomas: "The sculptures are a much loved part of the airport. They're photographed by thousands of tourists and locals...and something we very much want to have stay."
Wellington Airport has reinforced the cables supporting the Gandalf eagle and WorkSafe NZ is investigating just how the other eagle landed...

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