Friday was marked by our long awaited LOTR tour (for those not in the geek speak: Lord of the Rings). We can both safely say this tour was nothing that we expected and everything we didn’t. I think our vision was of a huge company arriving to pick us up in a big charter bus taking a group of 60 to vast open spaces where we caught glimpses and photographs of some the awe inspiring sights, all the while listening to a tour guide over the microphone, eating a prepared lunch at their headquarters before taking turns holding weapons and other movie memorabilia. The tour, as we found out, was none of that, much to our surprise and enjoyment and only slightly to our disappointment. The only disappointment we found was that most of the locations we came upon were not of the grandiose type we were expecting, but alas so many other parts of the tour more than made up for it. Kris and I are beginning to wonder if this company operates out of a major or even minor office at all or if it’s all done out of vans, canvas bags and bedrooms. Honestly we didn’t mind. Our guide found us waiting outside of our hostel and led us to a small van with two other American women and one other tour guide driving in the front seat, the very memorable Bob. Bob is what you would expect from a LOTR tour guide. His knowledge base and movie/book speak are absolute master geek, his enthusiasm for everything LOTR was consistently through the roof and his attention to detail for our benefit was amusing and absolutely appreciated. He is the one with the large amounts of facial hair and ponytail. Paul was our other guide, clearly greener at the whole gig, but nevertheless a good, more reserved, compliment to Bob’s wiliness. That there was only 4 of us on the tour, allowed for very personal attention given at our locations, Bob always offering to snap photos of us as proper movie characters. We also enjoyed their insights and proper geeky knowledge that always enhanced what we were seeing. Lunch was a proper hobbit-feastish plate of meats, cheeses, fruits, nuts and bread along with beetroot soup and brownies, even if it was at a local, suburbanish looking restaurant.
In between stops we watched dvd clips from the movie and made our guesses as to what was ahead. Many vistas we saw couldn’t be named for scenes in movies because so many of the scenes were composits of 4-5 locations pieced together. One beautiful vista we saw was used for just a glimpse of Gandolf riding to Minas Tirith (Gondor’s massive castle) which combined a frequently used mound of brown stretch called “Deer Park Heights”, the edge of the Remarkables and the Crown Mountain range. We realize that Middle Earth was all around us! Some properties we could only see from a distance as locals who own the land had become crazy or private about their treasure. Bob and Paul did drive us up to the private property sign of Peter Jackson’s Queenstown home that was used for many shots in the first movie, a spot called “Amon Hen”.
Complete sights we were able to see included Sam and Frodo looking upon the Oliphaunt, their capture by Faramir and his men in the Garden of Gondor known as “Ithilien”, the fellowship’s canoe ride past the massive statues of Gondor, Isildur’s ambush by orcs and subsequent death by orcs in the river and Arwen’s stand against the nine riders at the river banks outside of Rivendell (How was that for geek speak??) At the end of the day we got the chance to hold weapons and pose as characters (including me as a wonderfully short Gimli & brave Aragorn and Kris as a ring entranced Frodo and a sword wielding Eowyn ). Like I said, this was nothing like the tour we were expecting but it was thoroughly enjoyable all the same and we left the tour after receiving orders to read The Silmillrinian with our geeky love for everything LOTR intact.
(Above pictures: Ring from the banks of Ilsildur's death, us at the location F and S laid watching the Oliphaunt, me as Aragorn, Kris as Frodo)
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