Saturday, March 25th, Free Time in Queenstown...

A free day in Queenstown. We could do whatever we wanted. The important thing to know about Queenstown is a lot of the outdoor scenes from Lord of the Rings were filmed around the area. We booked the morning and afternoon tours with Nomad Safari to see just that. The tours were in big Jeep 4X4's that held the driver and six passengers. 

Let's look at the morning tour first. It started with a bit of rain. Not enough to dampen our spirits. Jordan would drive our car and Ruth would drive a second car. Ruth would be the guide when we stopped. Jordan was 'in training'. Ruth was a total expert in the movies, where they were filmed, and a lot of the background stories. Ruth was also from Germany and over-the-top with enthusiasm. She had absolutely no fear in driving her vehicle. This would be interesting in the afternoon tour. 

We knew we were in for a real treat when we saw the license plates on the vehicles.

They picked us up at our hotel. We picked up another couple of people and then met Ruth with her car full of tourists and we were off to find Lord of the Rings movie sites.

First we found Edoras. In the first picture, note where the sun is touching the top of the mountain. That is where Edoras was located. One must remember that all buildings and structures were removed after filming so the land was restored to its original state. Also, CGI was imposed on sites. Sometimes the ground was from one place and the background was from another place and CGI was put on top of that. 

Next we went to where the Rohirrim gathered. Look at the spot between the mountains on the right side. The second picture zooms in on that area. The ground is flat across there with the mountains behind. 

The site for Isengard was next. 

We would drive to Paradise, New Zealand. There is a National Forest there. A place in the forest was where we went to experience where Boromir died. This is not the actual site. That is on private land and not accessible. But it is just like the Paradise location. 

It was at this location that coffee, tea and hot chocolate were served. We were also allowed to wear some Lord of the Rings clothes and swords and have our pictures taken. Claude would put on Gandalf gear and hold Aragon's sword. I wore a robe. Another tourist used Sting. Sting is the sword given to Bilbo and then he gave it to Frodo. It would glow blue when orcs were in the area. 

We drove past the area that was the inspiration for the Dead Pools that Frodo, Sam and Gollum went through to get to Mordor. This area could not be used as it was ecologically very fragile. So, a replica of it was made on a tennis court in Queenstown. That tennis court is now being torn down. 

Our final stop in the morning was at 12-Mile Delta in Queenstown. This is a camping spot by the lake. It was used in the Lord of Rings as the site where Frodo leaves the Fellowship of the Rings and Frodo, Sam, and Gollum saw the Oliphants and made stew from conies. Ruth was dressed in a green velvet robe for this stop and enjoy holding out her arms while letting the robe flow around and behind her. Very theatrical.

Back to the Nomad Safari offices. It was lunch time. We were given credit at Balls & Bangles. Okay, I asked how they came up with this name. The Balls is for the donuts they make. The Bangles is for the bagels they made into sandwiches. The young man grinned when I asked. Oh well. I had a falafel bagel. So very good. Claude enjoyed a Cheese Burgel (burger on a bagel). Also very good. The sign on the wall said, "The more you weigh, the harder you are to kidnap. Stay safe. Eat donuts." We also each had a donut. They were as big as a saucer. The counter had some decorated to the hilt donuts. They were covered in icing and candy. Fun place to eat.

We walked back to the offices of Nomad Safari and walked their gift shop. Then was found a sofa and waited for the afternoon tour to begin.

Ruth would be our driver and tour guide for the afternoon tour. There were six of us plus Ruth in the vehicle. We were off. 

We stopped at an amazing viewpoint. We could see an antennae at the top of a hill. That is the point where Aragon falls off the cliff.

We drove to where bungy jumping originated. We watched a man jump. The video is below. Watch long enough to see him bounce up. There was another car wanting to use the road we were one. Ruth is telling them to give us 30 seconds and we would move. Ha Ha Ha

The location we were looking for was the creek running across the highway from the bungy jump. It was the site of the Pillar of the Kings. As Aragon and the Fellowship glide past these enormous pillars, Aragon comments that they were his ancestors. The back story to this is that Peter Jackson had them use pictures of Viggo Mortensen's grandfather and great grandfather for the models for these statues. When Viggo Mortensen saw this, his eyes filled with tears.

Our drive took us back to Arrowtown. There was a spot here used to film where Isildur loses the One Ring. Ruth also used this site to teach us a little about perspective in filming by taking a picture of us. I am supposed to be holding Claude in my hands.

Right near here Ruth left the road and took us for a ride in the river. This is actually a road and it goes in the river, then out of the river on dry ground, then back into the river and over and over. It is extremely bumpy. Anyone can drive it if they have the right vehicle. They do not allow rental cars to drive it.

One of the purposes for us driving in this river, was so we could stop in the middle and have coffee, tea and hot chocolate. Then we would have the opportunity to pan for elfin gold. Claude would do the panning. I would take the pictures. Claude found the most flecks of gold, four.

This location was also full of sand flies. These are a very real thing and they sting. Ruth gave us a salve to put on our bodies. Claude and I used that but I was still bitten all over my hands. The next day the spots started to swell and itch like crazy. I still have itchy sores on my hands to this day. They are going away. 

The final reason Ruth brought us to this river was to park in the middle of it at the exact spot where they filmed the Flood of Bruinen. This is when Arwen is taking Frodo to Rivendell to be healed after being stabbed by a Nazgul. She utters an incantation on the waters and waves of water horses come down the river so she can get Frodo away from the Nazgul. Cool to be in the river where this happened.

One of the bonuses of the Lord of the Rings tours is getting to go back in the land where you won't go on a tour bus. Ruth would take us to Skippers Canyon. This was an old mining area. The road into there and through the steep mountains is a dirt road that is one lane wide. However...it is two way traffic. Claude was riding in the passenger seat for this and I thought he was going to die. With Ruth being that fearless driver I mentioned earlier, she would drive right to the edge of that road so that another car could pass. Ugh. My poor hubby was in a bad way, very, very, bad way. Ruth stopped at a wider spot so we could have our pictures taken at a rock outcropping over the cliff. Claude got out and Ruth asked him if he was okay. Claude firmly told her "No". Ruth would have him sit in the middle seat of the vehicle the return trip out of the canyon. I give you Skippers Canyon.

We then saw the location for the Fellowship coming out of the Mines of Moria after Gandalf has fallen into the pit with Shadow. It is the rocky spot nestled in between the tops of these mountains.

We had one more photo lesson. This picture I really, really love. Claude and I stood in the spot on the left. Ruth set my cellphone for landscape. She started the camera to take the landscape picture. After she got us in the left portion, we quickly moved to the right position as she brought the camera to that side. It makes it look like we are in the pictures twice. Well, we are but it is a very cool way to get us in the picture twice. 

Ruth drove us into town and would drop us off wherever we wanted. It was about 5:30pm and she really wanted to leave us in town so we might, on a Saturday night in Queenstown, find a table at some restaurant. She made some suggestions. Claude and I both really just wanted to go to our hotel. I really didn't want to climb that hill again after having dinner in town. We had Ruth drop us at the hotel. We went to our room and I called the front desk and asked if there was a pizza or food delivery they could recommend. They told me to use Food 2 Go. I tried that on my cell phone and ordered us a pizza and two sodas. When they came, Claude went to the front desk to pick it up. When he came back, he had our sodas, a pizza box and a box with garlic rolls. Hmmm... We had not ordered garlic rolls and we ordered a full pizza, not a half pizza and definitely not the flavor of pizza we ordered. We ate it anyway. We were too tired to call and argue. We hoped whoever got our pizza was happy with it!!