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Published: August 10th 2008
Its been a few days i know since the last post, but we have been stuck with limited time, and the time we do have spare is filled with crap computers that we are pretty sure are on dial up internet. But that is neither here nor there so i will get right on with todays blog.
This is Jason again and i have been given the privilege of telling you about our day in Queenstown and the Lord of the Rings tour that we took as well. The day started the same as any other except that we allowed ourselves a bit of a lie in, so at 8 in the morning the alarm goes off and we both get up and dress, munch down some breakfast before taking turns nipping to the shower. Once we are both finished and ready to go we leave the campsite and head 2 minutes round the corner to the local supermarket for what will hopefully be our last shop before our triumphant return home. It isn't a big shopping spree just a few essentials to see us through the last couple of days (more soup and cookies and things).
We grab
the shopping bags and walk back to the Merc to unpack all the goods into their alloted cabinets then we are off again, this time into town to go on a mini shopping spree. We are on the lookout for souvenirs for all you lovely folks back home (just saying now we haven't got every single person a gift because that would be mental but we got a good little haul) We walk round various shops and see some things we like, but first we want to head back to the global gossip to check any messages and comments, and also to post an emergency blog that points out our intentions to cut the holiday short by a few days.
I am sure you have all read the emergency blog by now so i don't need to tell you what it said, and i wasn't going to anyway. We are soon back in town looking over our selected items before committing to buying them, quite sure that the recipients will at least like them. I am not going to divulge the information that tells you what the items are, you'll just have to wait and see.
Now back
at the Merc we pack our gifts away for safe keeping until the time comes to fly home. The tour doesn't start until half 1, and we are expecting a pick up so as it is only noon at the moment we obviously have some time to kill. We pass the time by first of all eating lunch and then reading, seems to be the most common past time in the Merc , besides sleeping. Half 1 arrives and we sit on the bench at the front of the park and wait for our collection. We first see a cool looking land rover vehicle with 'B1LB0' as the number plate (Bilbo Baggins from the lord of the rings films) but this particular car is for someone who was stupid enough to pay $300 for the full day trip, lunatic.
Eventually our car turns up, it isn't as glamorous as the one we had seen previously but the driver seemed cool, Justin was his name. We get in and there is a group of 3 Asian people in the car already, we are sat in the back seat. Justin then explains the route we are going to take and what
he is going to show us, and also that he will be stopping at various spots to allow us to take photos, or explain some history, or talk about what the location was used for in the lord of the rings movies.
After a 10 minute drive we make our first stop, here he points out the mountain range called 'The Remarkables' it was there that they filmed scened for 'the Two Towers' where the Rohan refugees are attacked by Warg riders. He also pointed out the cliff that Aragorn falls off in the same scene. Back in the van we drive a little ways further up the road and stop in a place called Bob's Cove (unfortunately we didn't get to meet Bob) We took a little stroll and after about 15 minutes he said that we were standing exactly where they filmed Frodo & Sam watching the Olyphants walking through the Ithilian camps with the foot soldiers close by. I took a few pictures again, and he also showed us a photo from the film so that you could see what it was that the place was used for.
After walking back to the van we
drove even further up the road and stopped. Looking over lake Wakatipu he pointed out the mountain range that became the 'Misty Mountains' also known as 'Caradhras', apparently the actors for those shots had to helicoptered up to the peaks everyday for the scenes to be shot. And to the left of that range was another little mountain that was used when filming the scenes where the Rohan army are massing before moving on to Minas Tirith. I know a lot of you have no idea what i am talking about but thats not my fault is it.
Next stop was the little town of Glenorchy, we stopped briefly here to buy refreshments and use the toilet facilities there, then we headed into the paradise valley. This place is literally off the beaten track, and the first cool thing that he explains is that there have been several movies that have shot scenes in this location. Most recently of course was the lord of the rings, but also the last Chronicles of Narnia Prince Caspian, and the January this year they were filming scenes for the new X-Men movie starring Hugh Jackman, in fact as we drove round there
was a film crew filming something at the time but we don't know what.
Next we drove through a private property gate, only a handful of companies are allowed to use this section with their vehicles so we are lucky. He takes us to a semi-dried up river bed that has tree trunk debris everywhere, he explains that none of the trunks grew here but have been carried from miles away when the river last flooded. he also reveals that this is the location the film teams picked to be the backdrop for Isengard where Saruman lived in the tower of Orthanc. Its difficult to picture it until he shows us a scene that shows the background. Again if you have no idea what i am talking about, for Christ sakes watch the movies.
Our final stop was at the edge of a massive forest, we walk in about 150 metres and he says it is very easy for people to get lost in here, i can see why, even this small distance in it is hard to make out the edge of the forest, and if you get turned around without a compass you have no chance.
The only good thing is that there are no predators in New Zealand so you would only die of starvation and thirst, phew!
He tells us about the various trees and even points out a weed like plant that is 200,000,000 years old, so it was around during the days of the dinosaurs, pretty swish. He then said that this forest was used for 2 separate sections of the lord of the rings trilogy, it was the backdrop for Amon Hen in the first film when Boromir is slain by the Uruk'hai captain. It was also Fangorn forest in the Two Towers and some of the big, thicker and older trees were the inspiration in the design of Treebeard so that when they superimposed him on the film he would blend in and look like he belonged. I think it was cool but thats the nerd side of me showing through.
Just back to Queenstown now, but Justin briefly stops in Glenorchy again and buys us all a hot chocolate, which was cool and we sat around a fire and chatted briefly until he asked where we all wanted to be dropped off. We opted for the town
centre as we had things to do. We dropped by a pizza place Elliott had seen but it was packed so we decided against it. But on the way to book our tickets at the cinema for the new 'X-Files' movie (what a nerdy day geez) we spotted another restaurant that was doing pizzas. So we booked our cinema tickets then went back and ate a Hawaiian pizza each, Elliott paid to say thanks for driving him around the country, which i thought was nice (would have preferred a big pot of cash but food will do i guess)
We returned to the merc briefly as we, again, had time to kill before the film started. When it was time we walked back to the center of town and watched the movie. I won't give a review now but to anyone who cares, i thought it was ok, nothing special, i thought the story was a little weak for a full blown movie but nevermind.
It was gone 11pm when we left the pictures and so i took the opportunity to phone my nan and wish her a happy birthday, it was a good phone call she seemed
happy to hear from me. The only problem was that i could hear myself talking in the delay and it is really off-putting.
With that taken care of, and another day filled we headed back to the merc, set the beds up and instantly dropped off, knackered.
Well that was our day in Queenstown, we are actually now in Dunedin, but there isn't loads to do here so we are killing time walking around the city centre. Oh yeah we have booked the flights home or rather moved them forward. we leave here on Wednesday 13th at 18:50 (07:50 your time) and the ticket says we arrive in Heathrow on the thursday at 11 in the morning, but we aren't sure that is right
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becks
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hey hey
Awesome pics guys!!! (and im oh so slightly jealous!)