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Two enormous Wētā Workshop eagles, one carrying Gandalf, which hung in Wellington Airport for twelve years.
Private to your Passport.
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Not a stop to travel to
This Big Thing is recorded for its history. It is no longer at this location, so it is not a stop to plan a trip around.
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Giant Eagles and Gandalf – Wellington Airport
This pin marks the Big Thing itself. If stopping, choose a safe and legal place nearby.
Approximate location · 41.330° S, 174.810° E
FIELD GUIDE
The story
For twelve years, arriving in Wellington meant walking underneath two eagles with a fifteen-metre wingspan, one of them carrying Gandalf.
Wētā Workshop made them, and they were unveiled in December 2013 to tie in with the Hobbit films. Each bird weighed about 1.2 tonnes, hung from the terminal ceiling in full flight, and did something no airport art usually manages: it made the building itself part of the story. Passengers looked up. It became, for a decade, the single most photographed thing in Wellington Airport and an unofficial welcome to the country.
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PRACTICAL
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WHAT TO EXPECT
Wellington Airport confirms the two 15-metre-wingspan, 1.2-tonne eagles and Gandalf were removed on 9 May 2025 and placed into storage pending a decision on their long-term future. The catalogue coordinate is only an approximate reference to their former airport display precinct; the storage location is not publicly pinned.
ACCESS
Stored and not currently on public display. The approximate Wellington Airport coordinate is retained only as the former public-display precinct, not as the current storage location or a visitor destination.
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TRANSPARENCY
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