I went to Rohan

Today I went on a geeky Lord of the Rings tour to the filming locations of several of the scenes from Rohan and the city of Edoras. The guide actually working on the Lord of the Rings films as a sound mixer and was nominated for 3 oscars for the Lord of the Rings films and won one for the third film! He also worked on the King Kong movie and won an oscar for that!

We drove out to the sites in a big six wheeled Toyota Land Crusier. It took about 2.5 hours to get there as we had to drive back to the mountains. The scenery in the mountains was stunning. There were huge mountains and in the distance was some snow covered peaks. To get to the actual mountain, Mt. Summer, where the set for Edoras was built we had to drive off road on bumpy tracks and ford a few rivers. Getting there was pretty exciting. We walked to the top of the mountain, (it wasn't very big, I'm not sure why it's called a mountain, it just looks like a big hill to me) and got to play with some replica swords and axes that Hammond (the guide) had in the back of the car. It was great having him as a guide as he had seen where all the sets actually were and had actually met all the actors. The swords and the axe were pretty heavy. The sword Aragon uses is massive. From the hill you can also see another filming location of the entrance to the Helms Deep valley. It's pretty cool being able to see places that you recognise from the films. After that we had lunch in a little station they use out there. It's pretty isolated, the only things out there are two farming stations. We got really good sandwiches, chocolate cake and champagne :) happy days.

I fell asleep on the way back. When we stopped for a quick toilet break Hammond realised that we had a flat tyre so all the guys on the trip had to change it. I'm not having much luck this week with vehicles breaking down. We arrived back into Christchurch about 6pm. I think I'm going to meet some of the guys from the Kiwi bus who arrived today for a drink and go for some food. Tomorrow I'm going to explore the city. Apparently there's not much here, but it looks like there are lots of shops, a big park and a nice looking art gallery so I'm sure there will be plenty to entertain me for one day.
xx