Red carpet commentary from The New Zealand Herald

4.22pm

John Rhys-Davies says that Orlando Bloom is here with his mum. Rhys-Davies says "Thank you Wellington, you are the real stars of the show!"

Mrs Bloom says she is "fantastically proud of Orlando" She says "watch this space" in regard to the many marriage proposals to Orlando today and that LOTR is the 8th wonder of the world.

4.38pm

Orlando Bloom is again showing off his red 'I love NZ' T- shirt, underneath a black jacket, wearing sunglasses. (Picture)"It's amazing to be here" he says, "we're so grateful to NZ and Wellington in particular. What is weird is having your mother fly in on a plane with your face on the side of it."

Orlando is signing as many things as quickly as possible for groups of young girls, who look overwhelmed with excitement

6.02pm

Orlando Bloom also stops. He says of the reception from fans - "It feels like the whole of NZ descended on Wellington" and of the film screening "It will be great to see how the audience responds."


6.45pm

The speeches continue.

Orlando Bloom (Legolas) - "Peter Jackson is the most amazing man in the world. This has been hands down the single most amazing time in my life, thank you." (He hugs Peter)

6.57pm

The stars have finished the speeches and are now posing for photos.

Girls screamed the whole time while Viggo and Orlando had their photos taken. When finished, the stars headed over to sign autographs, much to the girls' delight.

The stars walk off the podium, finishing with Orlando Bloom, who flashes his 'I love NZ' Tshirt to the crowd one more time.''

7.00pm

Over 2000 invited guests are now heading into the first screening of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. To accommodate such large numbers, guests will be seated both in Reading Cinemas and the Embassy Theatre.

An after-party is being held at Taranaki Wharf, which will begin with a powhiri and include The Ring of Fire – a showcase of music, dance and imagery from around the Pacific Rim.

I watched the broadcast on Sky digital movie channel and one of the presenters was showing all the spots that were assigned to overseas media reps. Even CNN Turkey sent a crew!!! I saw only snippets of Orlando, after all this was everyone's day to shine; but he was wearing a red tshirt under his black jacket. The logo was I (heart) NZ. When speaking to the Sky rep he had lost his Mum again. Apprently everytime she saw a camera, she spoke to the reporter next to it!! In the parade he shared a car with Liv tyler. At one stage they were both covered in purple string that had been aerosol sprayed from above them.

Outside the Embassy theatre, there were quite a few speeches made. When Dom Monaghan was introduced he received a massive scream and cheer fromthe crowd, he told the crowd to "Pace yourselves. Don't peak too soon, Orlando will be here shortly". Sure enough, when Orlando was introduced next, the crowd went crazy - only Peter Jackson and Viggo Mortensen received cheers that were as loud.

The Embassy theatre only seats 750 people, so other cinemas around the Courtney Place are also showing the movie. This means that all the main cast will not be in the same theatre for the movie. After the speeches, golf carts were used to ferry some actors, such as Billy Boyd and John Rhys-Davies to some of the other theatres. This means that no one feels that they were less important in the proceedings. Very nice touch - very Kiwi attitude on the part of the organisers.

A very funny quip by Peter Jackson - he introduced Hugo Weaving as "Agent Elrond".

Our Prime Minister, Helen Clark wore a beautiful floor length black gown, which was accessorised with a 'chain mail' shawl made by Weta Workshops. Incidentally, Peter Jackson commented that "when at Parliament for an official reception [before the parade began at 3.45pm (local time)], he joked that he had tried to get the overseas cast and crew inducted as New Zealand citizens in a mass citizenship ceremony - he then looked at Helen Clark who gave him the thumbs up. Not sure how that will work.

When Orlando made his speech, he said that it was nice to be back and that he hoped it would not be too long before he was 'back home'. Yes he actually said "BACK HOME".

Sean Astin made a very moving speech. He said 'that there is so much villiany and blackness in the world today, that it is nice to come to NZ and see such beautiful smiling, honest faces' and that 'NZ was such a beautiful place and New Zealanders were such beautiful people that he was proud to have spent so much of his time here in the last five years.'