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Published: January 26th 2007
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Edoras
Just as it looks in the Lord of the Rings Location Guide Book! Today we continued our tour of Lord of the Rings movie locations by heading out to Mount Sunday, location for King Theodon's castle at Edoras. The weather was gloomy when we left the campsite but seemed to brighten a little as we drove away from the area.
When we turned onto a quiet but still sealed road, I felt it was high time I took the helm and had a bit of a drive. The road was nice and straight so I had nothing complicated to do until the sealed road ran out and we suddenly found ourselves bumping along on a coarsely gravelled track. As our campervan company actually recommend Moutn Sunday as a must-see, then we felt sure the road couldn't be too bad. We were wrong! The road got progressively worse and my confidence waned so I let Glynn take over again and lead us on towards Edoras. In total we drove on the gravel road for well over an hour with the only relief coming from a proper road around the Lake Clearwater area. We drive on, the road continued to be awful but just as we thought we couldn't manage to drive any further, Mount
Mount Sunday and Me
Glynn stands proud at Edoras. Sunday appeared before us.
It really did look just like it did it the movie only all the buildings that were constructed on top of it were removed when filming was completed. Even so, it was quite evokative to see it first hand - a small lump of mounatain surrounded by a valley of flat lands. On every side of the plains however there were big ranges of volcanic mountains giving the whole area a unique and awe-insprising look. Once again, New Zealand has astounded us with its natural beauty that never ceases. Just when we think we've seen something truly amazing, the next location just seems to go one better!
We parked up on a bit of land further up the road and enjoyed a sophisticated lunch of cheese and tomato sandwiches while we enjoyed the view. We also tucked into some of the delicious cherries we had bought yesterday, throwing the stones on the ground around us in the hope that when we next come to visit, a few cherry trees might have popped up!
Travelling back down the road we spotted a man carrying a big backpack who was walking up a particularly steep
Mount Sunday and Me
Jude proves that we really did make it and in one piece too! part of the road. We pulled over to offer him a lift and he very gratefully climbed in the back of the van. His name was Bart and he was from Holland (a place near Eindhoven but I forgot the name of it - oops) and he was out doing a wilderness trek but had fallen into a muddy river and got himself completely soaked through. He didn't have a change of clothes on him for the first time in 7 weeks of tramping and had to abandon his hike the same day as he started, poor bloke. We dropped him off about 7 or 8 km up the road when we reached Lake Clearwater and Glynn and I decided to have a look around the strangely active little town on this dreadful road.
It turned out that Lake Clearwater is a holiday spot for Kiwis wanting to partake in watersports of all descriptions and all the little houses there are holiday homes. As we walked through the town, we stumbled across a Department of Conservation campsite tucked away next to another lake just a few minutes away. The water was as clear as any river we have seen
Mountain Stream
The whole valley surrounding Mount Sunday was filled with lovely little streams and these pretty purple flowers. in New Zealand and across the lake we could see the mountains in the distant. It was a really pretty spot and down by the waterfront there was an excellent pitch waiting for us. We made our mind up there and then that if we had $4 in change to pay for the pitch, then we would spend the night. We had the money, so that's where we spent night no.4.
Looking out onto the lake, we watched the local waterfowl swimming about. An information board in the camp grounds told us we were seeing Southern Crested Grebe and New Zealand Scaup which apparently is NZ's only diving duck! We fed breadcrumbs to the sparrows and some other unknown birds - one with a reddish brown chest and blue-grey crown, another that looked like a black and yellow sparrow. It rained briefly but cleared up in time for us to watch the sun going down. This is what it's all about!
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