There and Back Again - A Hobbit Lovers Tale, Part 8

Thanksgiving Day! And since NZ doesn’t observe this holiday, we are unlikely to get any turkey! What we do get, though are some fascinating experiences with landowners who allowed key scenes to be filmed on their property. The stops we will make today are not easy to find, and in fact, you would be trespassing on private property if you did. Julie is a true LOTR place-sniffer, and once she identifies a place where the movie was shot, she introduces herself to the landowner to secure an opportunity for her tours.

Our first stop was the scene of Lake Town. Lake Town is in the Hobbit, and is the place where Smaug has his retribution on the Lake people, and is killed by Bard. The Battle of the Five Armies happened here. Julie commented that we would be led by Ian, owner of the property, and that we should prepare ourselves, as Ian is a bit eccentric. Ian’s land buttresses up against Lake Pukaki, near the peak of Mt. Cook, NZ’s tallest peak. We jumped out of the bus to get some pics of the lake, which is the same beautiful turquoise as Lake Tekapo, but much larger. As we stood by the lake, a strange vehicle pulled up with and even stranger man driving and a man-sized dummy in the backseat. This was Ian, and he is a true snappy dresser.

Ian is a strange cross between a farmer, a storyteller and a stand-up comedian. He jumped out of the vehicle, and launched into the story of how he came to own the thousands of acres on which he farms beef cattle for the wagyu market in Japan. This entailed several anecdotes about WW2 and his father, who apparently never wanted the farm. Lewis Carroll would have had a field day with this guy. His grandfather bought the farm for his daughter, who had TB, in an effort to take her to a place better for her lungs. Unfortunately, she didn’t live there long before she passed away. So his son, Ian’s dad, was not terribly interested in farming the land. Ian is apparently quite successful, and Julie told us not to let his appearance fool us, he is a very successful farmer, and does almost all his work himself. I wish I could recall all his story/jokes, but suffice it to say he held all our attention outside in some pretty chilly weather. I wrote some of them down, but his telling of his stories was the best part. Ian is a natural. He showed us around the area where the films were shot, and had set up a bow and arrow shooting site, so everyone had a turn. I personally would never be able to farm there. The views would always distract me.

We took our leave of Ian, and headed to the site of the Pelennor Fields. This is where thousands of orcs battled the men of Gondor and Rohan. This is a huge location that had to suitable for a big battle, and be safe for horses, who were heavily armored and had to run across the field. This farm specializes in raising sheep with a very fine wool, used in Italy to create Italian suits sold for more than $20K. This farm is owned by Priscilla and Simon, and Pricilla drove out to greet us. She was also an extra in the films and had loads of stories about working with PJ, as she called him. Her farm is in Mackenzie County, and named after James Mackenzie, a notorious sheep thief who hid his stolen stock in this vast and empty location, nestled in the mountains.

Priscilla told us that PJ had to hire 20 people to fill in all the bunny holes in the field to protect the horses from broken legs. There were more than 20,000 people here for the movie scenes, almost 10,000 from the surrounding area as extras. She was an orc and showed us pictures of her in costume. One of the coolest things was that she had found a large spear after all the film crew had gone, so she brought it along to show us.

But the real draw of the Pelennor field was the ability of our Fellowship to reenact the scenes, and we had a blast. Julie had plenty of war props, including orc masks and the mask of the Witch-King, swords, axes, and costumes. It was on Pelennor that King Theoden roused his troops to battle in a seemingly overwhelming fight with terrible odds. We had copies of the lines and everyone who wanted to could act out a part. We went running down hills and stabbing each other, and luckily no one was injured. The worst of it was that a few members slipped in sheep poop and the coach was pretty redolent of it for the rest of the trip.

That night we stayed at the Harvest Hotel in Cromwell, where Bob and I split a chicken sandwich and some fries for dinner. All in all it was a terrific Thanksgiving.

Our last stop for the LOTR tour was Queenstown. Known as the NZ Adventure Capital, you can climb, jump, boat, swim, luge and bungy here to your heart’s content. We stopped on the way for four of our Fellowship to bungy at the AJ Hackett bungy bridge. This bridge sits over the river Anduin, from the movies, where the pillars of the Kings, or the Argonath was seen by the Fellowship. The bridge over the river is heart-stoppingly high, and all four of our Fellowship made the jump safely.

Queenstown is beautiful. Surrounded by mountains and on the shores of Lake Wakatipu, which is another glacial lake. From here you can see both the Southern Alps and the Remarkables mountain range. While the tourist trade was the top economic plan here, Covid knocked that out for the past two years, and now farming sheep, cattle and deer for trade to China is number 1. I absolutely loved Queenstown. We met an older couple working for Red Carpet Tours who were from Virginia and had just received their NZ citizenship. They love it here and told us that if you can bring a skill needed in NZ, they are happy to have you.

Bob and I had recently discovered that we had miscounted one of the medications he needed to take, so one of our challenges was to figure out how to get more. We stopped into a pharmacy, where they directed us to the nearby Queenstown Medical Center, where Bob could be seen by a physician who would order the medication he needed. This proved to be a piece of cake. We were seen quickly and efficiently by the Clinic physician, and went to the drugstore there to get his medication. During our brief chat with the doctor, we mentioned how much we loved Queenstown and would consider moving there as they truly reverence and care for their elderly. When she learned we were nurses, she agreed to hire us on the spot!

We had one more stop for the day in Queenstown: Goldfield’s Jewelers. I had ordered Nenya, the ring worn by Galadriel. Nenya had the powers to protect one from darkness, and I’ll probably need it because Bob ordered the One Ring. He doesn’t seem to disappear, though. Goldfield’s is also a major source for Greenstone, what the Māori call jade. They have some beautiful pieces, and we may or may not have bought more presents.

That evening, we crossed off one of the Queenstown food must-do’s. Fergburger was named by Lonely Planet as one of the best, if not the best, burgers in the world. We were told that one would stand in line for possible hours and that you had to get your food to go because there are only a few tables inside. But we decided to give it a go. Our wait was less than 15 minutes, we actually scored a table, and we certainly can see why Fergburger is at the top. The meat was juicy, full of flavor, just the right amount of toppings, and though competitive, everyone was fun.

We had been told to get some things for lunch for the nest day, as we would be going off the grid, and the Ferg bakery was right next door. We grabbed sandwiches, a few desserts, and some water, and headed back to our hotel. Tomorrow we go to a series of LOTR locations where we can recreate to our hearts content.