AE911Truth thanks our guest author Clare Swinney. This article was posted originally on 9/11 Blogger.

The Hard Evidence Tour Down Under hit a high note on Saturday afternoon at the Te Papa Museum in Wellington, when over 650 turned up to hear Richard Gage, AIA, the spokesperson for Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth, (AE911Truth), talk about what really happened to World Trade Centre (WTC) 1, 2, and 7 on 9/11. It was the largest crowd the architect and founder of AE911Truth has ever spoken to since he began spreading the truth – what he calls the Architecture of Destruction, about the evidence of 9/11, and revealing the buildings were brought down by controlled demolition, not by jet fuel and fires.

Gage spoke during the entire two-and-a-half hour long event. Says Jeremy Morrison, "It was a great presentation, even for someone like me who knows a lot of this stuff already. I still got a lot out of it, mainly about the science behind the controlled demolition. It's come a long way and he covered a lot of ground." Morrison, who kept a watchful eye on the proceedings on the stage, as well as in the audience, said he was aware of only one person who loudly voiced his disapproval, and the heckler, which Morrison caught on camera, looked emotionally shaken by what he had learnt about 9/11. "Apart from him, the audience loved Richard. There was a really good atmosphere," offers Morrison.

Says Helen Waddington, who was one of the team who worked behind the scenes to contribute to the event's success: "It was surreal. It was great when so many turned up. I had a smile on my face when the hundreds of people came!"

As fewer than 300 had been expected to attend, the Wellingtonian 9/11 truth activists involved had booked the 300-seat Soundings Theatre at Te Papa. It wasn't until the day of the presentation, did they realize a far larger venue was needed.

By 1pm, an hour before the presentation's scheduled start, 328 had registered and a multitude more expected to attend, largely owing to the fact that Gage had received good media coverage. As well as a fair and balanced article in the Wellington paper, The Capital Times, he was interviewed by veteran radio interviewer Kim Hill, on the day of the presentation. Although Hill made repeated attempts during their 36 minutes-long exchange, to throw a wet blanket over the flames of truth he was throwing, her efforts were ultimately thwarted by his steely resolve to convey the facts. As one listener put it, it was very obvious as to who was invested in getting to the truth of the matter and who was invested in obfuscation.

Owing to the interest generated by the Gage-Hill interview, many phoned the Te Papa Museum to make enquiries, alerting the staff to the fact that the 300-seater theatre would not accommodate the numbers expected to swamp the venue. Offers Waddington: "Thankfully, Te Papa were excellent at managing the overflow of people. They were able to set up live audio and visual feeds in the large Oceania conference room, which held approximately 320." Waddington, who did head counts, said there were about 648 people there for the entire presentation and that two of the event's organizers estimated that around 100 people had to be turned away. "I estimated we may actually have had 700 who were definitely interested and close to 1000 people there at the end of the day, as visitors to Te Papa Museum were milling in and out of the Oceania room and listening to Richard speak all afternoon," she said.

At the start of the talk, Gage asked for a show of hands of those in the Soundings Theatre who believed the building collapses on 9/11 were due to controlled demolition. About two-thirds raised their hands. Then, near the conclusion of his talk, he asked, who still believed the official story – and only two raised their hands. The audience, evidently grateful for having someone so adept at ripping the mask of Osama bin Laden off 9/11, thanked Gage for his efforts, with a sustained round of applause.