LOTR Sites: The Argonath & Bungie Jumping

February 6th

South Island, New Zealand

We had stayed a couple of nights in Queenstown, in an RV park.

 

 

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The next day, we had one more LOTR site to see on the way out and that is the Argonath, known as the King’s Pillars, which are the majestic, huge statues of Isildur and Elendil, on the river which marked the border of Gondor.

On google maps, it lists “The Argonath” so we drove out to that exact spot on Chard Road, overlooking the Kawarau River. We knew we were on the right trail when we saw two LOTR fans, one dressed in a cape.

 

But we just couldn’t see how this river was the same as in the movie, and the spot on the map marked “Argonath” just didn’t seem to be the right spot.

Of course, those statues aren’t there. And secondly, they manipulated the area around the statues to make it look like huge slabs of rock were cut out of the mountain. And that wasn’t real. But there was a windy, rocky river.

Khevron looked online and said that supposedly they started shooting at the suspension bridge and went downriver from there. So we went to the Kawarau Suspension Bridge.

 

Since it was lunch, we had to have a meat pie.

You can bungie jump from the bridge for 320 New Zealand dollars. Eeep, no thank you. So we took pictures from the bridge and tried to imagine two Argonath there. And yes, you can imagine it.

After that, we headed north where we would camp at Lake Paringa. But on the way we would pass one more LOTR filming site, and that was looking across Lake Wanaka at Mount Aspiring. Supposedly, those snowy peaks were filmed up there.

We stopped at the lake and looked. The view was very beautiful, but not very snowy, so it was hard to see the similarity. 

Accidental tour: Chasing after more LOTR filming sites.

February 4th

Near Te Anau

South Island, New Zealand

 

 Heading to Fangorn forest

We headed out from Te Anau with a plan to see the Fangorn Forest site at the Snowden Forest.

We made it out there a little after noon, to the coordinates the Dept. of Conservation had on their website about LOTR (https://www.doc.govt.nz/parks-and-recreation/places-to-go/lord-of-the-rings-locations/) and we walked a little way into the woods, but it was hard to see the similarity with the movie.

Supposedly, it was where they filmed the scene from Fangorn Forest when Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas met Gandalf, but we figured a lot of that scene may have been filmed in a studio.

I noted that there was another LOTR spot for filming Fangorn further up the road, and not too far off the road to Queenstown. This was the Orc mound where Merry and Pippin had escaped into Fangorn. It was only 35 minutes off the main highway, so we decided to go there.

This was down a gravel road on the way to Mavora Lake. We got passed by a LOTR tour van also headed for the same spot. 

ACCIDENTAL TOUR

 

We followed them up the hill and listened in a little. Also, they had brought a great mask of a dead orc on a spike, so we got pictures with it.

 

 

Silverlode

When the Fellowship leaves Lothlorien and goes down river.

(Saw it from the footbridge).

 

 

 

Then we went our own way while they walked on further. We decided to go down towards the lake in search of a bathroom, and found one down near the Mavora Lake campground.

Ironically, the LOTR van pulled up and it turned out there was another site here, so we followed them and saw the spot where Frodo hid behind a tree as the orcs ran past and where Merry & Pippin were also hiding (nearby, but not across from Frodo).

Nen Hithoel

Landed on the shore in boats.

Frodo stands on the shore before leaving. And Sam follows him and they row to the other side.

We were glad we got to see the extra LOTR filming sites, thanks to the tour we followed!

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Fangorn & the Milford Sound

 

On Feb 3rd

 

HENRY CREEK CAMPSITE

We camped north of Te Anau at the Henry Creek Campsite, which was a pretty primitive site. They just had smelly outhouses (full of bugs). It had just rained, so we set up our tarp over our campervan to ward off rain. 

 

But there was a terrible influx of mosquitoes into our campervan. Now, up until then, I had assumed that New Zealand mosquitoes were cute and small compared to Alaska mosquitoes, but this is where it proved me wrong. They were fairly big here and very aggressive. We ended up with like 70 of them in our campervan and we killed half of those, which took us most of the night in a long, ongoing battle. Needless to say, we didn't get much sleep.

 After that massive failure, we skipped our second night at Henry Creek and got a night at a camper park in Te Anau, and had no trouble with bugs there.

 

WEIRD CREEPY BUGS

Also at Henry Creek, we saw a tree with dead bugs on it. Weird, creepy dead bugs. I looked this up later and google suggested that these were the shells of young cicadas which they shed. This makes sense, as we heard a lot of cicadas in the woods. 

 

LOTR SITES;

 

FANGORN.

There was this cute, unofficial sign made of rocks.

 

The first site we went to was supposed to be Fangorn Forest, where Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli meet Gandalf. We went to the site, but all we saw was forest, and we couldn't see any trees that looked like that location. Also, we know that most of it was filmed on a set in Wellington. So, that was a bust.

 

ANDUIN RIVER

The other was an overlook of Waiau River, which was used as the Anduin River. This one did look more like the movie, or at least, we could imagine that parts of the movie were shot there.

 

Moreover, it had a strange and dangerous overhang of the trees and grass on the edge of the cliff, where there was nothing under the last 5 feet or so of land. Very unsettling. So we didn't get very close to the edge.

 

 DALEK'S VIEW

On the map near the Anduin River was a note of a Dalek's View just down the road. We had to go see, and found this tank decorated as a Dalek. Fun! 

 

 

 MILFORD SOUND

 

For the afternoon, we drove to the Milford Sound, which was a very pretty drive. We stopped at  Lake Gunn.

 

TUNNEL

 

There was a one way tunnel on the drive. We had to wait our turn and then were allowed to go through it. It was a very long tunnel. 

 

AT THE MILFORD SOUND 

At the end of the journey, we arrived at the Milford Sound. Which had a port access for a cruise ship, and some hotels. We didn't want to pay for parking, so we parked in the free spot just out of town. Really, there wasn't much of a town, just a few hotels and restaurants.

After a walk, we got in our van and drove back. 

THE KEA.

Google says this about the Kea.  The kea (Nestor notabilis) is a large, highly intelligent, and famously mischievous alpine parrot endemic to the South Island of New Zealand.

At the Divide we stopped and in the parking lot we saw a kea bird sitting on top of a car, trying to get into an ice box. And it was succeeding. Also, it was using its beak to pull up the trim. I threw a couple of rocks at it and tried to shoo it away but that didn't work. Pesky birds.