A giant sculpture of Gandalf riding an eagle departs Wellington airport for good

WELLINGTON, New Zealand -- For more than a decade, passengers at New Zealand ’s Wellington Airport have boarded flights below the figures of two giant, hovering eagles from the Hobbit films, one bearing a bellowing wizard Gandalf.

With 50-foot (15-meter) wingspans and weighing 2,600 pounds (1.1 ton) each, the sculptures that hover in the terminal have delighted tourists and scared children since 2013. Their tenure was eventful — one became unmoored from its fixings during a severe earthquake in 2016, and plummeted onto the terminal floor below. No one was hurt.