Today we fully validated our Tourist Visas by going on a Lord of the Rings tour around the Wakatipu Basin. Our driver, an actual extra from the second movie, piloted the Land Rover all around the area to show us scenes that were used in the LOTR movies, and give us interesting details about the making of. In the picture, you can see the Remarkable Mountain range behind us, which is used in several places in the movies, but most notably as Mordor. The smaller hill just in front of the large Remarkable Mountain range is used in the famous battle scene with the Riders from Rohan, where Aragorn is dragged by his horse over the cliff and into the river below. Our driver also showed off the capabilities of the Land Rover by driving it up and down steep grades, on a sideways 45 degree angle, and even through the river! Other fun things from the tour included a pause for a spot of English tea, and a chance to do some gold panning in the river, where we were able to actually find a speck of gold using the traditional panning techniques.
Saturday, December 2, 2006
Middle Earth...Lord of the Rings
Today we fully validated our Tourist Visas by going on a Lord of the Rings tour around the Wakatipu Basin. Our driver, an actual extra from the second movie, piloted the Land Rover all around the area to show us scenes that were used in the LOTR movies, and give us interesting details about the making of. In the picture, you can see the Remarkable Mountain range behind us, which is used in several places in the movies, but most notably as Mordor. The smaller hill just in front of the large Remarkable Mountain range is used in the famous battle scene with the Riders from Rohan, where Aragorn is dragged by his horse over the cliff and into the river below. Our driver also showed off the capabilities of the Land Rover by driving it up and down steep grades, on a sideways 45 degree angle, and even through the river! Other fun things from the tour included a pause for a spot of English tea, and a chance to do some gold panning in the river, where we were able to actually find a speck of gold using the traditional panning techniques.
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5 comments:
Great stories!! A little too scary at times! Are you dry and warm now?
Ben will go to the championship game if UM gets a re-match with OSU. Maybe see you there?
mom weizen
In the event that Michigan goes to the BCS Championship game in Arizona, we will be there. I actually have had a hotel room booked there for several weeks already now. Unfortunately, it looks like Florida's politicking may move us back into the Rose Bowl.
Great journal and magnificient pix. Did u bring ur TRIPOD in ur backpack to capture those 'rock climbing' pix?
Interestingly, unaware u're touring Lord of the Ring battlefields, I happened to dig out the LOTR video for my Big Sister Lynn Marla this SAME day. Lynn is the Coordinator of MI DNR BOW pgm. She introduced Mom to BOW (later me) and becomes her great buddie. She never saw the great movie. I told her when I saw it several yrs ago, the Queen (of the woman kingdom) in LOTR reminded me of her. Spirit moved...
BTW, I could NOT get your jetboarding video running, maybe due to Ford's firewall.
Dad
Please tone down the fun a little bit. I am getting sad here in my cubicle as I drown in Excel and Outlook while you drink wine and do all this adventure stuff.
I didn't bring my tripod, we're trying our best to travel light on this trip. New Zealand domestic flights (we had 2) have a luggage restriction of only 1 checked bag at 20kg (44 lbs) per person. The picture of us canyoning was taken by the guide.
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