Edoras tour

Splendid day. The scenery is just bloody incredible, and the Lord of the Rings movies did it justice. Words can't really describe.

We went with Hasslefree Tours. They picked us up in Cathedral Square in the middle of Christchurch in a long 4wd van, then went to various hotels and hostels to pick up a guy from Holland, a family from Sydney, and girls from Germany, France and New York. Quite an eclectic mix, all friendly people.

The area used in the movies for the Rohan Golden Hall of Meduseld is on a private "station" of 30k acres. It's a couple of hours southwest of Christchurch. Found by a location scout by chance, because his plane was blown off course. Our guide, Mike, referred to it as a lost or hidden valley. It was unknown to most people outside the immediate area--before the movies, anyway. Now everyone knows about it.

The guy who owns it can only get out via helicopter sometimes. We had to use 4wd to get in because the river at the base, now called The Silver River, after Tolkien's description, braids throughout the whole area and isn't passable by regular car. There are also several gates keeping casual travelers out.

The whole area is absolutely stunning. The small hill of Edoras is surrounded by water and snow-covered rugged mountains. It's a small lump in the valley the river runs though.

People working on the film signed agreements to not take photographs. But they did anyway. The former sheep-shearing shed where we had our champagne lunch (cold-cut sandwiches and champagne) has pictures, some "illegal" taken by the film workers.

It's very rocky, with bare vegetation. Nonetheless, each tussock of grass was carefully located using GPS, labeled, removed and stored. Then when the days of filming were done on the set that took 8 months to build, the set was dismantled and each tussock put back in its original location. The only evidence of where the Golden Hall stood is a few scrapes in the rocks, and a marker.

When I can, I'll upload pictures.