New Zealand - Lord of the Rings Tour

The start of our tour. We lost a day flying to New Zealand, leaving Thursday and arriving Saturday morning. David and I were met at the airport by our guides Julie and Vic James. We checked into our hotel and then headed out to find something to eat. Since it wasn't lunch time yet and nothing else was opened for service, we ended up at Burger King. We walked around a little bit and then headed back to the hotel. We had a nap and then walked around later and got dinner.

Our first stop was Hobbiton and then on to Rotoura where we saw a traditional Mauori dance and dinner. David was elected chief of our tribe and gave a speech to the chief of the Mauori tribe and did some special handshake.

It snowed on us causing the roads to Mt. Doom to close.

Next we were in Wellington where we had breakfast with Daniel Reeve, the calligraphist of the movie and he told us how he made the maps and did the calligraphy. Then we visited Weta Cave where they did some of the special effects.
Not my favorite character!

Then it was on to the place where they made the cloaks for the elves. We entered through a wardrobe closet (Narnia) and ended up here.

We picked up this hitch-hiker, Grandalf as he is known or Derrick. He was an extra in the movie and led us up to the top of Edoras. This was a fun day.

On top of Edoras with the Rohan flag.

Obviously David has a better stance than I do.
To get to Edoras we had to cross 3 streams. This was their winter so the water was extremely cold and one stream was just above our knees with a strong current.

Next we visited Pelennor Fields where they filmed the charge. The owner of the property was an extra as an Orc and had found a spear the the company left behind so we got to play with it.

A movie of the charge

New Zealand is a very beautiful place. This is just one of the many shots of the scenery we took. We ended up taking over 1,000 pictures on the trip.

It was such a special time being able to spend this quality time with David.

David convinced me to do something I had never done before and thought I would never want to do. We went on a helicopter ride in Queenstown. We flew over the Remarkables mountain range landing on top of a snow covered mountain and looked down on the valley.

We also flew through a canyon landing in a river bed. This is where the filmed the Ford of Bruinen. I am sold on helicopter rides. Anyone up for one?

The final fellowship dinner. What a fantastic trip and wonderful new friends, but most of all a great time spent with David and sharing his love for LOTR