We woke up early this morning as we had an early start. We had arranged for our tour guide to collect us from reception at 8:00am as we were off on another scenic Lord of the Rings location tour. The area around Queenstown is spectacular and is one of the major areas used for filming LOTR. - Many different scenes from the movie were filmed in the area, and we had the opportunity to view them up close.
The day was clear, although it was a little cool in the shade. First stop was 12 Mile delta. This is where Sam sees the "Oliphants", and also where he catches a brace of "coneys". The area was also used for the area where Faramir and the rangers are patrolling. After this we followed the lake around further past the old historic town of Glenorchy and into a national park. The national park includes a swamp area which was used for scenes from the "Dead Marshes" and also a forest area which was used for the entrance of Lothlorien, and also for Amon Hen - The orc chase scenes where Boromir get shot by an arrow from the Uruk-hai.
Apparently the leaves were not "Golden" enough for Peter Jackson (The movie director), so he had a whole heap of leaves collected and sent to the local primary school, who paintd them gold!. The forest was definitely spectacular, with moss covered trees and branches, and the sunlight filtering through the leaves. The only thing missing was a couple of Elves casually wandering through! After Lothlorien, we headed onto some private farm land in an area called 'Paradise Valley". This is the location where Isenguard was filmed. With mountains surrounding the area and the forrest to the side, it was easy to picture where the tower of Isenguard would have been located.
The area used for Isenguard has also been used for the scenes from Narnia, and also for the X-men origins- Wolverine movie. Most recently is was also used in the second movie as the location for Beorn House. This bought us to the end of the tour, so we headed back to Queestown with a couple of more stops to take photos of the spectacular scenery.
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| The finding of the Ring |
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| Gollum claims the ring |
We headed back to the apartment and consulted the LOTR guide book. Across the other side of Queenstown, in an area called "Arrowtown", there were a couple of other locations where scenes from LOTR were filmed. These were "Bruinen Ford", where Arwen and the injured Frodo escape from the black riders, and "Gladden Fields", where Deagol finds the ring, and is killed by Smeagol/Gollum. So, with guide book in hand, Josh, Paul and Daniel headed off to see what we could find. (Mazz stayed at home as she had seen enough LOTR for the day)
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| Gollum dissapears |
Although Peter Jackson did a fair job with the Lord of the Rings trilogy, we thought we could have done it better, so being inspired by all the film locations we had seen earlier in the day, we took it upon ourselves to "recreate" a few scenes from the film. I'm sure you'll agree they are an improvement on the original.
After our film making efforts, we returned back to the appartment, picked up Mazz and headed into town. There was one more thing that we still needed to do before we left Queenstown, and that was to ride the Gondola up to the top of Ben Lomond, and then have a turn (or three!) on the luge, a "go kart" that runs down the hill in a special track. Daniel was especially happy, as this was the one thing that he was looking forward to doing in Queenstown. After another Gondola ride back to the base of the mountain we grabbed some dinner in Queenstown and then headed back to our apartment.
The day was clear, although it was a little cool in the shade. First stop was 12 Mile delta. This is where Sam sees the "Oliphants", and also where he catches a brace of "coneys". The area was also used for the area where Faramir and the rangers are patrolling. After this we followed the lake around further past the old historic town of Glenorchy and into a national park. The national park includes a swamp area which was used for scenes from the "Dead Marshes" and also a forest area which was used for the entrance of Lothlorien, and also for Amon Hen - The orc chase scenes where Boromir get shot by an arrow from the Uruk-hai. 
Apparently the leaves were not "Golden" enough for Peter Jackson (The movie director), so he had a whole heap of leaves collected and sent to the local primary school, who paintd them gold!. The forest was definitely spectacular, with moss covered trees and branches, and the sunlight filtering through the leaves. The only thing missing was a couple of Elves casually wandering through! After Lothlorien, we headed onto some private farm land in an area called 'Paradise Valley". This is the location where Isenguard was filmed. With mountains surrounding the area and the forrest to the side, it was easy to picture where the tower of Isenguard would have been located. 
The area used for Isenguard has also been used for the scenes from Narnia, and also for the X-men origins- Wolverine movie. Most recently is was also used in the second movie as the location for Beorn House. This bought us to the end of the tour, so we headed back to Queestown with a couple of more stops to take photos of the spectacular scenery.
After our film making efforts, we returned back to the appartment, picked up Mazz and headed into town. There was one more thing that we still needed to do before we left Queenstown, and that was to ride the Gondola up to the top of Ben Lomond, and then have a turn (or three!) on the luge, a "go kart" that runs down the hill in a special track. Daniel was especially happy, as this was the one thing that he was looking forward to doing in Queenstown. After another Gondola ride back to the base of the mountain we grabbed some dinner in Queenstown and then headed back to our apartment.
you certainly look like you having a lot of fun. we enjoy reading the blog and hope to do so for the next few days. Off to Brisbane tomorrow morning, Wishing you a Happy Christmas and continue the fun xxxxxxxxxx Love Mum and Dad S.
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