Jan
5
Mordor Out My Window
Filed Under Australia/New Zealand 2009/10
Queenstown, New Zealand
January 5, 2010
5:00pm NZT
Please see uploaded photos here.
We’ve got a double bed and a bunk set in our room, so I went for the top bunk last night. This morning, we woke up to more great weather in Queenstown, perfect for our outing of the day–a tour of “Lord of the Rings” movie filming sites in the area! Actually, we have a perfect view of the Remarkables, the mountain range used to depict Mordor, from our hotel window. After a light breakfast, our tour guide, Tom, picked us up in his 4WD Land Rover. We picked up two more couples, two college-aged guys and an older couple, both from England.
Our four-hour tour began with a drive part way up the Remarkables. They are quite remarkable; I’ve never seen any other mountain range with such jagged tops which is what makes them so perfect for the evil land of Mordor. We had a great view of Queenstown and the surrounding area, but boy was it cold up there, especially in the wind. We learned that in the LOTR scenes showing the Remarkables, other foothills, which don’t exist in front of them, were pasted into the movie.
Next we drove past the A.J. Hackett bungy site and back up along the edge of some more mountains near a vineyard. From here we looked down into the ravine of the Kawarau River where Frodo and entourage journey on their boats between the Pillars of the Kings. This is one of my favorite scenes in the trilogy because of how awe inspiring the canyon and the two statues flanking it are compared to the spec sizes of the boats traveling between them. From up above, though, it was hard to grasp the true height of the canyon walls.
After that, we enjoyed some bumpy, fun 4WD action (reminiscent of my journey along the Merinee Loop in the Outback) along and through the Arrow River to enjoy some tea, coffee, or Milo and some biscuits. Then Tom showed us how to pan for gold after which we all had a go. Queenstown became a town because of all the people who flocked here during the 1800s at the prospect of gold. I found some flecks but nothing worth cashing in (rats). Tom drove us to another site along the river where the Ford of Bruinen was filmed, the scene when the Ringwraiths are chasing Frodo across the river but get washed away at the last minute.
Our last stop was up top another mountain for some spectacular views of the New Zealand landscape and an overview of all the places we’d visited that morning. Tom said that “The Hobbit” might be filmed, and some of his fellow tour guides who were extras in the trilogy are now starting to grow their hair out so they can be extras again. Overall, the tour was great, not only to see LOTR film locations but also to enjoy this fantastic country.
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