Day 25: Edoras and the Flag of the Rohirrim

Well another amazing day!  We had a leisurely start (a gloriously sunny one!) because the tour bus from Hassle-Free Tours was coming from Christchurch and wouldn't reach Methven until 11.15.  We had a cuppa in Cafe 321 in town whilst we were waiting for the six wheeler 4WD bus/jeep to arrive.  Simon was our driver and there were six others on the tour which made for a close-knit group.  There was Patrick, a cruise-ship entertainer; a young man on a break from High School in the US over here seeing the countryside whilst Dad was giving a presentation at a conference in Christchurch; two unrelated German folks and an American couple who worked at Milwaukee University (where the original Tolkien manuscripts reside!)

We drove first to Mt Somers for a loo stop with Simon playing us DVDs of Lord of the Rings to whet our appetites en route to Mount Sunday.  We continued on the Ashburton Gorge Road till the road turned in to gravel track and then stopped at the Lake Clearwater settlement.  It was a beautiful view of the lake and the mountains beyond.

Apparently the settlement is all holiday homes as people are not expected to stay all year round.  There are no facilities and no power so solar panels were in evidence.  All cabins have to be self sufficient.  The cost of buying one is high because no more are allowed to be built.

From Lake Clearwater we continued along the gravel track, descending into the valley where Edoras/Mt Sunday was clearly evident from its position on the valley floor.

Peter Jackson must have felt he had found exactly what he was looking for.  The rock which Edoras and the Golden Hall perched on is not a mountain and its name comes from local folks who used to mount up and ride out there on sundays.  We could see why!  Simon pulled over to park just in front of the hill so that we could get photos, and he also showed us some movie stills so that we could see what was real (the Golden Hall) and what had been CGI'd.

We then drove through into a part of the Station which was only accessible to us in the six-wheeler and enjoyed a bit of off-roading through streams and over bumps until we reached the spur at the end of Mt Sunday.  The views here were tremendous with the familiar range of hills stretching away in to the distance to the cleft which Jackson used for his long shots of Helm's Deep.  It was grandeur indeed on a huge scale.

We walked up the spur to the top of Mt Sunday and Simon used his photos to show us the placing of buildings and the arrival of the actors etc.  Much was remembered from our group knowledge of the films in particular the scene where Eowyn, escaping from the vile Wormtongue, runs out of the Hall and stands looking out down the valley, at which point the Rohirrim flag is torn away from its pole and floats down past the oncoming Gandalf, Legolas, Gimli and Aragorn.  Apparently this was completely unintended but PJ liked the symbolism so it stayed in.

Simon had brought several movie props with him, including a Rohirrim flag, so folks used them for photos.

We spent some time enjoying the fabulous surroundings before walking back to the bus and chatting over lunch, before it was time to return to Methven - a very enjoyable day and a welcome break from driving for Tony.

On a different note, it was welcome to hear promptly from Wilderness with an apology and the news that we have been reimbursed the money for the Ferry Lounge.
(Hassle-Free Lord of the Rings Tour to Edoras - NZD235 per adult from Methven, NZD255 from Christchurch, includes lunch)