Hopefully, you enjoyed my last New Zealand blog post about the north island. Now let’s step off the ferry and explore the south island with Red Carpet Tours.
Pelorus River Barrel-Riders.
Okay so we weren’t necessarily barrel-riders, but it was the same river Richard Armitage went down in a barrel. In the Hobbit (Desolation of Smaug), Bilbo helps the dwarves escape from Mirkwood via the river – some of the river was created via special effects but a lot of it was shot practically on this river. The water was crystal clear, the surroundings were peaceful – it was just a perfect start to the day. They even had one of the barrels there! We were guided down the river in our own kayaks by a team from Pelorus Eco Adventures. They stopped to show us several of the filming locations.
Afterward, we set on our way to Nelson. Nelson is a special place for the entire tour group, we felt that it really solidified our friendship and what better way to celebrate than to get totally drunk!
Jens Hansen
I’d been dying to visit the Jens Hansen workshop! The makers of the one ring! We had the privilege of meeting Jens Hansen’s son, Halfdan Hansen who spoke to us about the rings and let us hold and take pictures of the oversized ring used for filming. Unfortunately, Jens passed away before he even saw the ring in the films, the workshop was commissioned to make the one ring in 1999 but sadly he passed away that same year so his sons continued his legacy.
Helicopter Tour
After our little tour of the Jens Hansen workshop, we had a helicopter tour with tasman helicopters of South of Rivendell and a famous Fellowship of the Ring filming sites. I was especially excited since it was the first time I’ve sat in the front seat of a helicopter. There were no words to express how beautiful each site was. Each location we landed on was picture perfect. We took turns to be at the front of the helicopter in between landings. I was at the front when we landed on the site where the Fellowship hid under the rocks from Saruman’s Crebain spies.
Edoras
Everybody on the bus started to either hum, play, or think about the theme. Mt Sunday was absolutely beautiful. It was miles away from anything else in New Zealand. Totally on its own. Heres a picture of the filming site side by side with one picture I got on the day:
We were guided around Mt Sunday by someone who played an extra in the Edoras scenes. Sadly we went on a slightly cloudy day so the snowcapped mountains weren’t visible, we could, however, see the bases of the colossal mountains. The cloudiness gave it a very mystic feel, so it was still perfect. Not one person wanted to leave the top of Mt Sunday that day. The surroundings we could see were breathtaking!
We packed so many activities into the south island, I’m going to have to put it all in two blog posts! Keep an eye out for the final part of the Lord of the Rings south island adventure soon!
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