Quite clearly this week has been dominated by hurricane Sandy causing devastation over large parts of the U.S. east coast with implication for tens of thousands of travellers as well. Before we get to that, let us cover two other airport related news we picked up this week.

First we heard from our friends in New Zealand’s capital Wellington, where – according to the Guardian – a “hobbit release” with a piece measuring 13m, featuring Gollum diving for 4m fish, welcomes visitors to ‘the middle of Middle-earth’ at Wellington International Airport (WLG). The installation has been installed to celebrate the arrival of Peter Jackson’s first Hobbit film, An Unexpected Journey. It surely looks impressive:

(Photo from Wellington Airport; you can also find a video about it here)

Then there was news from Heathrow again. Good news. Yes, you heard right. The news this week was that London’s Heathrow Airport (LHR) is sprucing up Terminal 5 with a pop-up park for passengers to unwind in before their flights as reported by the Business Insider. The new indoor green space, which opened last week, is designed to serve as a relaxing area for “de-stressing” before a plane ride with grass, hedges, plants, Rosemary bushes, and benches, continued the article. It reminds us of Munich Airport’s beer garden.