Queenstown, New Zealand

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Today I went on a Lord of the Rings tour, which was fantastic!! We had the option to go to the Glenorchy area or a more local, off-road trip which shows film sites as well. We chose to do the off-road one seeing as how we were already in an off-road vehicle. This car could go ANYWHERE! We rode over rocks, trees, stairs…we even drove through rivers! We crossed the river 25 times, including driving upstream, through 4ft deep holes in the rivers where the water came up to our windows, etc. We stopped for tea where I got some flack for drinking my tea black “Must be an American thing…” We saw many film sites and learned how the landscapes were digitally manipulated for the scenes. Basically, in the LOTR movies, NOTHING you see is real. The main mountains shown in the film are from Queenstown, NZ and are called the Remarkables. In the movie they digitally removed the “double cone” which the locals would have recognized immediately in the movie and then they cut the range in half, doubled each half, and staggered them to make them longer.

I was going to go on a hike to the summit of Ben Lomond today but by the time I got back from the LOTR tour, it was about 2:30pm and the hike would have taken 6-8 hours and we weren’t too keen on me walking back alone in the dark. But we spend the afternoon relaxing and watching movies. 😊

Talk to you all tomorrow,

Ashley

PS The photos for this day will be added when I can, but they had to be emailed to me individually by the guide from my tour since he graciously offered his camera for me to use since I had left my memory card in my laptop and couldn't take more than 6 photos.

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Photos

I'm a HOBBIT!!!!
This is one of the ways they made people smaller in the movie!

Comments

[Claire]

The "Precipitous Bluffs" sign is prob the best thing I've ever seen! HAhaah