Announcing the Cruise to Middle-earth: The Sequel, Celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Fellowship of the Ring.

TheOneRing.net staffer Garfeimao (aka Cathy) is planning our next Cruise to Middle-earth! Here’s all the details:

New Zealand will always be Middle-earth here at TORn. With that in mind, I am proud to announce a second cruise to Middle-earth. This is your chance to see the enchanting Land of the Long White Cloud and Middle-earth in the same place. Red Carpet Tours will be customizing short day tours for us from several of the ports, as well as a longer, optional post-cruise tour of locations not reachable from the ship.

This cruise will sail on the Celebrity Century from Sydney, Australia on November 30, 2011 and finish in Auckland, New Zealand on December 12, 2011. The bulk of the cruise will be in New Zealand waters, with stops at ports near several Lord of the Rings filming locations. The advantage of a cruise is that it acts as a hotel, a restaurant and transportation so that you need unpack only once during the cruise. It will give everyone in the group time to bond over dinner, to meet up during ‘at sea’ days to watch the films, and to even have a costume party. Exact optional tours are still in development at the moment, so please do contact me for more details.
Continue reading “Return to Middle-earth in 2011!”

Congrats to Ringer Mike M from Tomball, TX!

This contest is now over – thanks to all those who participated!

To celebrate their Spooktacular event, Sideshow Collectibles has kindly offered fans of TheOneRing.net a chance to win the Gollum Premium Format Figure! Priced at $299, this figure (just announced on Tuesday and shipping 2nd Qtr 2011) features a swappable torso, so you can display either Smeagol or Gollum. And in case you want to display them both at the same time, they are including a separate base to accommodate. Since this giveaway is exclusive to TheOneRing.net, you’ll need to follow these directions to participate. Go to SideshowCollectibles.com and visit the Spooktacular Contests area. [right here] Click on the ‘Gollum Giveaway’ link near the bottom. Enter your details into the form and use the word ‘HobbitNZ‘ when prompted for the contest word. And that is it! One winner will be chosen at random on Saturday at 4pm ET, and we will post the winning name as an update to this story. You must be 18 years or older to win. Good Luck! [Gollum Figure]

It’s a serious topic for the hundreds of film and tourism workers among the 2000-strong crowd, but Wellington’s Save the Hobbit rally had a terrific positive energy. The party atmosphere was helped by the music – Wellington bands like Fly My Pretties (I think!), Poi E! from the movie Boy, and when the time came to concentrate our attention on the subject at hand, a beautiful rendition of Pokarekareana.

The crowd fell silent and after an introduction from our newly-elected mayor (Celia Wade-Brown, who’s something of a tech geek), we heard Richard Taylor address the crowd, which he did with his usual blend of sincerity, passion and gentle humour. Continue reading “Party Atmosphere at Wellington Hobbit Rally”

New Zealand is not going down without a fight! Join the effort to keep The Hobbit in New Zealand by participating positive rallies throughout the country. A facebook page has been setup for the effort, including dates and times when rallies will be taking part in your town. If you are in New Zealand, join your fellow Kiwis this Labour Day Monday! [Facebook Page] [Rally Event Page to RSVP]

If you do attend, please send in your reports to spymaster@theonering.net. We’d love to hear from you all.

With the news that the NZ Equity Meeting was canceled last night, we are now getting some reports from the ground. Below you will find two reports: One from a witness to the resulting technician march (with pictures!);  Another from a technician marching with some exclusive information. As a quick summary, the general consensus is that the meeting was canceled last night when it was realized the protest group greatly outnumbered those in the actor’s equity. However, the worst news comes from Jabes report:

We received news tonight that the Hobbit is essentially lost to NZ, but maybe some drastic act would help brew enough support to present a solid case to Warner/MGM

Thanks to Ringer Caras Galadhon and Ringer Jabes for sharing their reports! Click ‘continue’ to read them in their entirety.

Continue reading “NZ March Reports – Hobbit already moving??”