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In the early hours of Thursday morning, while most of us were fast asleep, thousands of Lord of the Rings fans across the country flocked to the first public screenings of the Return of the King.
At one minute past midnight the film began showing on around 80 screens from Invercargill to Northland.
At Wellington's Embassy Theatre, where the film had its premiere, extended versions of the first two films were shown back to back, just before the final instalment screened - with some of the keenest fans sitting through all three.
Hundreds of people stumbled out into the dark just after 3:00am appearing remarkably chipper and buoyant.
Although some viewers commented that the film was long, most people were positively effusive about the end of the trilogy.
Some people dressed up for the screening while others came from Australia just to see the first public screening of the film.
The Embassy Theatre in Wellington reported that pretty much all of its showings are booked up until Christmas. But the theatre is expected to show the movie for about six months.
From Friday, 114 screens will be showing the film, which makes it the widest release ever in New Zealand.
Many movie theatres are showing the film in two theatres, just to keep up with demand.
The 3 hour and 20 minute film is expected to set a new domestic box office record.
