Day 4: Edoras LOTR Tour to Mt Hutt

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• Tour Guide: “So which one is your favorite character in Lord of the Ring? How many times did you watched it? 5 times? 10 times?
• Me: “Errr…. Sorry, I don’t really watched LOTR… I’m only here to take pictures” *grinning*
• Tour Guide:”Err…. Well, that’s alright mate… Sometimes we do have people like you joining” *smiling*
• Another Passenger: “Yah well I saw it like 10 times or so” *obviously a die hard LOTR fan*


I was having difficulty finding another activity to kill the time in Christchurch. Kaikoura? Nah, experience is too similar with Akaroa. Hanmer Spring? Nah, don’t feel like jumping to hot pools. Nelson? Too far. I ended up finding this LOTR Edoras tour which happened to be discounted 50% on bookme.co.nz (from original base price of 235 NZD). The irony is – I never even watched LOTR from start to finish. I know it’s a trilogy. And there’s some ring involved. I think Liv Tyler is in it… But, that’s all. It’s not only LOTR actually – for some reason I’m not really a movie fanatic. I just don’t have the patience to watch something that long and use my brain to digest ha ha…

When the ride came to pick me up at the motel – whoa, was surprised. It was a 6 wheels drive minibus! Cool! We picked up some other tourists (and most of them are die hard LOTR fanatics). The ride today is a bit long: 2.5 hours (one way). I tighten my seat belt after seeing how the driver drove. I want to make sure I’m still in one piece after this trip. On the way, Steve (the driver) pointed out some buildings that looks OK but apparently will be destroyed due to something wrong with the foundations after earthquake. He definitely knows the area.

We passed by Rakaia Gorge – which looks very pretty in this milky turquoise but unfortunately did not stop at all. We also passed some pretty highland cattle ground, but also didn’t stop. So many nice things passed by, no stop – unlike the Akaroa tour that I took just the day before. We ended up stopping in this small shop that sells homemade pies & cakes for comfort break.

We finally did stop in front of this pretty lake on the foot of Mt Hutt but unfortunately I forgot to capture the name. Was it Lake Clear Water? Not sure. Steve said that in winter – this big lake will be frozen and you can even skate on it – although I’m not confident with the safety level of that activity. With lupins all around, it’s just so pretty. I can understand how come there are many lodges around & why people chose to retire there.

The journey up to Mt Hutt is very rocky. Some small rental cars passed by and OMG, no wonder they would get bruised and battered by the stone chips. Literally small rocks flying around as the road is not asphalted. And apparently there’s a reason why we were taken in a 6WD. Because we’re going across a river stream. With the car. Seriously! So cool! I’m just awed and amazed as the car roams passed the river and not a single drop went inside the car.

After that we need to take a short hike above, and the view from the top is definitely better. The guide then pulled out several pictures – and asked us to gather around to match between the pictures (from the movie) vs the real scenery. Steve also pulled out some fake swords and flags, replica from what was used in LOTR. I just played around for few minutes and pass it to the others who seemed to appreciate it more. I’m more interested to take different angles for my pictures.

And then all of a sudden, I heard a Singaporean accent. Been living in Singapore for the past 2 years, I can definitely recognize Singlish anywhere. We chit chat a bit and apparently those are 2 professional photographers that happened to visit NZ (they did DIY, not tours). Their camera are more serious than mine! I only remember one of them is using Canon 1D Mark III with this expensive white L lens. The other is using a Nikon which I don’t know what’s the type – but also looked like serious stuff. Then I gave them the best smile and say “Can you pls take my picture???” (with my own camera, of course) And voila! The result did come out better vs if I asked some random stranger.

On the way back, I can’t sleep in the car because they played this “LOTR Behind the Scene” video loudly. Well, that’s what you get if you join a movie tour. Texted back and forth, apparently M already landed in Christchurch. We met up in Botanics Garden and walked around the cordoned city centre together. I feel like a tour guide as I’m showing him this and that – which I have seen 2 days before.

Ok, tomorrow the road trip officially begins. I hope the rental car is red.

To view more of my travel pictures – pls go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/ariyanti_p/sets/72157628705874019/

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