The Making of…
Chapter 10
Bloom, Boyd, Monaghan… You’re All Dead!
We stepped out of the minibus at the Wellington docks just after ten in the morning, and found ourselves faced with several large warehouses, and a small group of people all in wetsuits emblazoned with ‘Wellington Watersports Centre’.
“Hi,” One of the guys said, stepping forward. He was tanned, tall, muscular and blonde (to sum his appearance up, he might have just jogged off the set of Baywatch). “You must be the guys from The Lord of the Rings. I’m Mike, and I’ll be showing you some basic boat-handling skills today.”
I had to physically stop myself from rolling my eyes at his typical introduction. ‘Hi, I’m a guy who does sports better than you! Let’s go do sports!’
“Hey, I’m Kira.” I smiled forcibly as he shook my hand, he then moved on to everyone else, including the camera crew that had tagged along. Apparently they wanted some ‘Making of’ footage for the DVDs. Everyone who was in the Fellowship was here, except for Ian, because he would never have to be in the boats, as everyone was supposed to think that Gandalf was dead at that point.
We went into one of the warehouses, which contained several Canadian-style canoes, and other Watersports equipment. I located the ladies changing room and changed into my bikini and pulled a pair of shorts and a t-shirt over the top.
As I stepped out, I went to find the other equipment I would need. As I passed the men’s changing rooms I heard several screams – mostly sounding like they were coming from Billy, Dom, and Elijah.
“Dom! Stop looking at me you pervert!”
“Yeah? Well stop dancing around while you’re in the middle of changing!”
“Billy! Turn around! Have mercy!”
“Shut it, Wood!”
And so forth.
I rolled my eyes and walked off to find a lifejacket. As I was pulling it on, John walked out of the changing rooms, grimacing a little.
“Honestly, those three have no shame!” He muttered as I laughed.
“I thought we all gave up our dignity when we entered acting, isn’t that the general rule?” I grinned.
“Fair point.” He smiled as Viggo, Orlando and the two Sean’s entered the room. They were all wearing similar clothes to me (minus the bikini… I hoped). A few minutes later, Billy, Dom and Elijah stumbled out, giving each other the occasional punch on the arm. As soon as we were all assembled, Mike and the Baywatch Squad appeared.
“Ready to get out on the water guys?” Mike said enthusiastically, giving a glistening white-toothed smile.
Not long after that, I found myself sitting in a canoe on the water with Viggo (as we would be in the same boat in the movie… No pun intended), being coached and told things I already knew. This wasn’t my first time out in a boat.
“Right guys, now you know the basics, let’s have a race!” Mike cried cheerfully from the small rescue dingy he and his ‘crew’ were in. He threw a marker buoy into the water a couple of meters away and aligned his boat parallel to it. “Ok, start parallel to my boat and first team around the mark and back is the winner!”
“Sweet.” I muttered under my breath, before turning to Viggo who was sitting behind me, “Lets thrash these guys!” I grinned as we paddled to the ‘start line’. Billy and Dom paddled up beside us and really gave us the evil eye – I supposed they were trying to psyche us out.
