King-Sized Crowd

We may be proud of the little bashes we have in Leicester Square but it's New Zealanders who really know how to throw a party. One hundred thousand people crowded the streets in Wellington (that's equivalent to a quarter of the city's population!) for the world premiere of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, putting the paltry few hundred Brits who camped out for last year's event in the UK to shame - even if it is the middle of summer Down Under. The cast and crew took part in a huge parade around the city on Monday (yes, we know it's Monday now but Monday in New Zealand comes 12 hours earlier, okay?) before ending in a 470-metre red carpet outside the Embassy Theatre for the first screening of the film. Practically the whole cast were present to see off Tolkien's tale for the last time, led, as ever, by director Peter Jackson. "I'm feeling incredibly humbled by this wonderful reception," Jackson told he BBC, going on to say that the immense reception made them feel like "the first people to land on the moon or something." So take note people. On 11 December, when the Rings premiere come to London, let's show the world that Brits love Tolkien too.