Christchurch Lord of the Rings Tour- Day 217

Today we’re going to be visiting probably one of the grandest Lord of the Rings location in New Zealand. It’s Edoras.

But first coffee. Before we get on our tour today we are heading to the re:START Mall which is a massive shopping mall made out of containers that’s basically Christchurch’s answer to the need of shopping after the massive Christchurch earthquake. Sadly, while we were getting coffee there we learned that the mall is about to close so we are probably one of the last ones to get to film it.

Now that Laura and I got our caffeine fix we are heading to Edoras. We are joining the team from Hassle-Free Tours for an epic journey to one of the grandest and one of the epicest Lord of the Rings location.

Edoras or Mt Sunday however is not in Christchurch city centre. in fact it’s about 2 and a half hours drive away in the Ashburton Lakes. however we do stop along the way at Rakaia to pick up a couple of yesterday’s muffins which we get at a bargain then it’s back on the road towards Edoras.

As you may have noticed we are in a pretty beasty bus which is 6 wheel drive and will really get us into the off the beaten track places once we hit those gravel roads on our way to Mt Sunday our driver Phil is kicking it into 6 wheel drive and we are making our way right into the heart of the Ashburton Lakes. Like in most bus tours we are taking a lot of pit stops where we can take amazing pictures the landscape surrounding us are absolutely stunning there are huge because we are basically travelling through a massive valley which is inhabited there is only a few farmers and a tiny place which is only getting busy in summer so basically we have the entire place to ourselves.

But one of the things that this area is famous for is it’s huge amount of wind. In some days you can’t even walk and it really looks like today is one of those days. the wind is about to wipe me off my feet.

It will still be pretty OK? I promise you. We’re still gonna do a river crossing and everything else but I’d be negligent if I tried to get you to the top of the hill in this wind. It will really blow you off your feet up there.

So long story short, we will see Edoras for sure but we’re not sure if we’re gonna be able to climb it because the wind is so crazy.

So now this is for real there is no more pitstop we are on the final stretch toward Edoras. We are making our way to the very location where they were filming all those Lord of the Rings scenes.

the location is called Mt Potts Station and it has been voted many times one of the most stunning Lord of the Rings locations in the whole country. So needless to say that the anticipation in the bus is growing.

As we’re getting closer to Mt Sunday and passing through this beautiful scenery we’re watching some behind-the-scenes documentaries on the bus about the location that featured in the Two Towers and The Return of the King which we have just arrived at.

Phil stops the bus and he’s taking out some Lord of the Rings props so we can take some awesome photos in front of Mt Sunday. We have Gimili’s axe we have the sword of Isilidor and we are taking pictures of everyone together it’s really fun and really epic.

And once we have those awesome photo opportunities right in front of the mountain it’s time to make our way up to the mountain and believe us these buses can do just that.

For the whole way, Phil has been sharing with us his huge wealth of knowledge not only about the behind the scenes stories of Lord of the Rings but also about New Zealand in general and the awesome area that we’re in.

We make this really epic river crossing right to the bottom of Mt Sunday where those of us who are brave or stupid enough decide to climb up Mt Sunday in this blistering wind.

As we are climbing higher and higher the wind is getting stronger and stronger and it’s harder and harder to hear our guide which is telling us stories about how the whole set was built here it took them 9 months to build the whole thing it took them a few weeks to film in it and soon after they dismantled the whole thing to return this land to it’s natural pristine beauty.

Although we don’t make it all the way to the summit of Mt Sunday because it far too dangerous today we’re still having a lot of fun partly because of the amazing landscape but also this wind is hilarious and we’re not the only ones that think that.

Hi I’m Kate I’m from Germany and we’re in Edoras Mt Sunday. And it’s really windy! It’s so windy.

Alright so let’s go over where this location was featured in the Lord of the Rings so not only this was the capital of Rohan, Edoras, it was also the backdrop for the Misty Mountains and Helm’s Deep.

In short this was the place where all those epic shots were filmed the biggest scenes were filmed right here and it’s really awesome.

After taking the time to embrace the amazing views and being completely bashed by the wind we are now making our way back toward Christchurch. this is gonna be a really long journey across rivers and land it feels that we are in a pilgrimage like the Hobbit were in the Lord of the Rings.

Just to break up the journey we are stopping at Mt Potts Lodge to get lunch we are having a gourmet fancy as sandwich and because not everybody’s hungry I’m getting two of them so I’m pretty sweet with that and after a big big meal we are now making our way toward Christchurch. It’s a really long journey so we are just napping it out. Seriously there’s nothing to see here we’re just sleeping.