October's not really peak tourist season over here, and an LOTR tour is a bit touristy to attract many Kiwis, so I had my trip all to myself. :) This meant we did what I wanted. Sunday dawned dry after a night of rain where I was staying in the little town of Geraldine – but as we drove up the valley the snow got thicker on the ground. The poor little lambs looked a tad cold, but lively enough.
We came through the little holiday settlement of Lake Clearwater, where kids were enjoying the unexpected snow, and carried on over the brow of a hill. And there, just like that, there was the magnificent valley with Mount Sunday – Edoras – in the middle.
Driving along we got a number of views hopefully tallying with movie shots, and had morning tea overlooking the mountain (though really, compared with what's around, it's a small lump). My guide André explained that Mt Sunday's basically a lump of hard rock sticking out of the ground that the long-ago glacier which formed the valley was unable to squash. He gave me the option of climbing it; I wasn't about to say no and wasn't bothered by the prospect of getting wet feet wading through the many little streams crisscrossing the valley floor. Boldly we set out, and after a few river traverses and a steep climb up, reached the top.
There's a survey marker about where the Golden Hall was built which is much-graffited (but hey, if you're going to graffiti anything, best to graffiti something manmade). I rather liked this question:
And my guide found what has to be about the only reminder of filming left up there:
It's a bolt, sawn off as far down as possible. I found it completely impressive that not only did they manage to film out there – it's a long way from anywhere – but also that there really was no impact on the land. André said initial scepticism on the part of locals was helped by Peter Jackson's general efforts to minimise that.
Across the valley and up and bit there's the gorge where they superimposed Helm's Deep longshots.
We stopped at Erewhon Station for lunch. Erewhon was named by a 19th-century settler named Samuel Butler (who later wrote books about this area), and it really is “nowhere” backwards. It couldn't be more isolated really. Out at Erewhon these days they're breeding merino sheep, Aberdeen Angus cattle, and Clydesdale horses, which they occasionally use for pulling stuff like in the old days. One of the horses had a foal. (Awww).
The plan was to eat lunch in the woolshed, but they'd just been shearing and it smelt of wool and dirty sheep. :( So we had a quick look, including the old shearing engines, and came out again.
Lunch was outside the old homestead building, now derelict, but attractive in a faded sort of way – I like old buildings.
After lunch, we went off-road. Two valleys converge at Erewhon, rivers running down from the mountains, and the plan was to cross the headwaters of the Rangitata river. Normally there are no problems but it's not yet high season, and it's spring so the snowmelt has made the river stronger and higher than usual. All the tracks were basically washed away, so we had to start from scratch. There were a couple of tricky moments but we got across – bumpily – and refreshed ourselves in the little trampers' and hunters' hut owned by Mesopotamia Station, the farm on this side of the valley. (Well, André had done all the work, but I was happy to eat brownie anyway).
Then it was back along the edge of the valley through Mesopotamia Station. André told me about the family that have farmed the station for over 60 years and the current issues with the Department of Conservation, which is buying a vast tract of this land and looks set to change the way they've been farming for so long. When we reached the station itself we met the farmer (on his son's quad bike!) A very typical Kiwi, down to earth, but naturally worried about his lambs given the harsh weather overnight (though by this point much of the early snow had melted away). André said if he was doing a tour on a weekday and was passing Mesopotamia at the right time, he'd stop in at the farm to visit the two children and their teacher so the kids got to meet lots of people despite their isolation from the outside world.
Then it was back to civilisation for us.
It was pretty much a perfect day – incredible weather and mindblowing scenery. It's pretty wild out there; I came away with immense respect for both the early settlers who travelled up with basic gear and first farmed it, as well as those who are still farming today. It's untouched and spectacular, and I don't think you need to be a LOTR fan to appreciate it!
During the rest of the weekend I did a couple of walks to waterfalls, ate good food, and visited friends in Christchurch today to round off a very pleasant break!
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