The countryside west of Christchurch is a mostly flat and agricultural area called Canterbury, which gently slopes upwards toward a dramatic mountain range called the Southern Alps. The river valley linking the plains and the mountains just so happens to be the place where Peter Jackson decided to film the scenes from Rohan and Helm's Deep in the second LOTR movie "The Two Towers". It is very rugged and beautiful country and as remote and far from cell phone range as you probably can get in NZ.
The cloud cover was low and forbidding, and we had occasional rain "spitting" on us, but we drove on into this valley, some thirty km past where the road went from pavement to dirt. To our left were foothills with occasional river valleys splitting them, and to our right was tussock, the Rangitata River, and more falcons than we knew existed. We kept stopping to try to take pictures of the falcons, but they were most uncooperative.
We headed straightaway to a hike of Mt Sunday, a 100 meter tall hillock covered with rocks and brush. Mt Sunday was re-christened as "Edoras" - the capital city of Rohan - for the movies and is the actual filming location for all of the scenes of Edoras. It is a beautiful hill in its own right, but the spot also offers a commanding view of the gap in the foothills where they CGI'd Helm's Deep. The medium length hike was terrific - we had it entirely to ourselves, only seeing a few people in the carpark before leaving. The only living things we saw were of course random sheep and cows that graze in the area.
Atop Mt Sunday the terrain was exactly as it appears in the movies, specially reminding us of the various scenes in which Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli are chasing the Orcs across Rohan.
And of course being LOTR nerds, we brought a speaker loaded with Lord of the Rings music and listened to that on our ascent to the top. And, we made our own videos, with the music playing in the background. This one recreates a scene of the chase of the Orcs, starring Lauryn as Legolas, Jen as Aragorn and Peter as Gimli.
The other reenactment starred Kendra as a horse, and Lindsay and Lauryn as soldiers of the Rohirrim. We wanted to add this video as well, but the children made threats to us about the cost of the therapy we will have to pay for if we post embarrassing videos of them to the internet, so we won't. (We still have the videos on the back-up drive for when we need blackmail material.) Anyway, here is one photo with Lindsay as the horse, so you get the idea...
If you look past Lauryn or Lindsay in this picture, you see the hill where Helms Deep was inserted into the hillside. We really enjoyed this hike and got a nice family shot using our tripod and timer, and then an even better pic of Kendra.
That night we backtracked slightly and found this awesome "freedom camping spot" along the shores of Clearwater Lake. We camped there, having the whole site to ourselves. We bookended the night with those great hot dinners and breakfasts that you have when camping in the damp and relative cold. To anyone who cannot fathom why you would ever want to camp, the hot breakfast in the morning is a good place to start.
Our next destination was Arthur's Pass (the subject of our next post) but along the way we stopped in the little town of Darfield. What a quintessential Kiwi town - a petrol station and grocery where we refueled and stocked up, and this terrific cafe, the Darfield Bakery. We all agreed these were the best pies we have had in NZ. Pretty sure Darfield is not in the "Let's Go NZ" tour book...but if you ever find yourself there, go get a pie!
Excellent reenactment. Who knew you were actors as well? Beautiful picture of Kendra!
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