Nerd Alert!

OK, as I told you in the previous post, Becky and I discovered we were both Lord of the Rings fans (LOTR). She was interested in a tour of the filming locations around Queenstown so we both decided to take a tour together. She was visiting a ton of the filming sights while in NZ and she showed me her map with all the locations and film sets marked on it. Whoa! She was a woman on a mission.

We did one of the pricier tours, but was told it took you to more places and the guides are actual fans and not just drivers who point out things so we went for it. It did not disappoint! Just to let you know how geeky this was, all 7 people on the tour saw the extended editions of the movies and read the books. We also got o pose with several props from the movie (not the originals, but copies incase the originals were lost or broken) so you kinda had to let go of any personal embarrassment you had at this point and embrace your inner hobbit/elf. The elf cape was an original and was worn by Sam in the movie - weeeee!

Most of the filming in Queenstown was for the filming of the escape of the Rohan refugees to Helm's Deep in The Two Towers along with some other bits. We saw were the refugees walked, where they were attacked by Orcs on Wargs and where Aragorn tumbled over the cliff attached to a Warg. That I recognized right away! Our guide had pictures of the scenes so we could look and compare for ourselves and it's amazing how they get so many shots from one location all due to camera angle and positioning. I think when I get home I am going to take better still from the movie and edit my pics so you can see the similarities better. It's pretty awesome when you see it in person though! You'll notice that some of the scenes are reversed - that's a whole other story on why and I won't bore you by getting into it here!

Our guide was also a cornacopia of information and trivia on the filming, movies and books and he freely shared this with us. He pointed out favorites places to eat for cast and crew, funny stories of their off camera shananigans, and details on how locals were cast into the movies. Apparently Orlando Bloom did anything dangerous he could do, despite a clause saying he couldn't in his contract (and almost got a stunt double killed while taking a canoe where he was told he shouldn't), the four hobbits were inseparable and Viggio Mortenson was almost arrested several times because he insisted on carrying his sword everywhere, even in the streets of Wellington!

Ok, that's enought nerdiness for now. Be warned that I'll be totally annoying the next time anyone watches LOTR with me because I will feel compelled to share all my new knowledge with you! Who's in for a movie night?