back history - 2nd post on 2003 ROTK Tour

[winter_elf]

Since keeley_keena has asked for more photo's from my New Zealand tour and info about the tour - here it is! I'm trying to pick some that give the impression, since I took uhm... over 600 pictures :O heh.



In fall of 2002, in one of my constant, 'check www.theonering.net every 20 minutes' moods, I caught an ad and post about Red Carpet Movie tours, and that there was a tour of New Zealand, visiting the movie sites and including LOTR: Two Towers opening in Wellington. Oh, I was sooo there! I could afford the tour, no problem. I had plenty of vacation time. The drawback ... the airfare was over THREE TIMES the cost of the tour!!!!!! YIKES!

Their website: http://www.redcarpet-tours.com

So, I told myself, I WILL GO if they do this in 2003 for the ROTK. I will start planning now. So, my 'check www.theonering.net every 20 minutes' became 'check www.theonering.net every 5 minutes'. It was sad. Yes, I was totally being a geek. I planned, I told everyone. I tried to talk my sister into going with me. She refused because she doesn't like bus tours. I checked the web some more. I was absorbing every single bit of LOTR news. Finally, the info for the tour was posted, and my hands shook as I sent in my reservation info and cc deposit. Then MORE waiting. The dates were in flux, because while they had a rough idea of what/when/how/where/how much, New Line had NOT decided where/date the World Premier of LOTR:ROTK was going to happen. Peter Jackson eventually won, and New Zealand got the World (1st) Premier, and the date was December 1st. Finally we had dates. Things fell into place, I paid my full tour price, said hook me up with a roommate, and paid for my airfare (much less than what it had been the year before).

What was planned, an 14 day bus tour of North & South islands, including two days in Wellington for the World Premier. Things just started happening in that last month, as a Howard Shore concert was planned, a Viggo Poetry Reading, a TORN party, a parade.. etc. I had to do it all, and was frantically getting tickets for events online. Wow - I got seats for me and my roommate at the Howard Shore LOTR concert - SIX rows from the front!

Arriving in NZ (14 hour flight from LAX) I was on cloud nine. I had an extra day before the tour started to explore Auckland city some, and did a city tour and some shopping.

I then found out this tour was so large, it was THREE busses worth! Wow. There was about 120 of us to start with. Imagine taking over a town with over 100 LOTR fans. We were our own rampage :) heh. Our guides - Anwen & Derek Carver had been extras on the LOTR movie set for a few days, so they had stories to tell us of the filming. One of the busses was a group of about 15 from Taiwan. They, unfortunately, could only do the first part of the tour, and left us at Wellington to fly home while we flew to the South Island.

Actually, it was good I didn't go in 2002, since they had expanded the tour to include ROTK film sites, and the whole world premiew was a two day party I would have missed!

(Wellington-North Island)
A sampling of the Premier parade. Leading it was Maori's doing a traditional dance, greeting. Following them - the actors in convertibles and between the cars - people dressed up as all the races of Middle Earth - Rohan, Gondor, Elves, Orcs, Ringwraiths, etc, etc. Using original costumes from the movies


(Wellington-North Island)
Viggo's butt. As I was snapping the picture, he turned! ARGH! I never got a good pic of him. I was in the front row of the grandstand, but had this stupid camera man (with a MONDO camera), who not only was less than 5 feet from his subjects, but determined to stand right in front of me!


(North Island)
Gollum's fishing pond - where Gollum is going after a fish down a stream and Sam & Frodo are arguing - uhm.... in Two Towers I think..... Very pretty


(North Island)
Our guide, Derek Carver. '...and right where I'm standing is where one of the hinged trees pulled down by Orcs at Isengard was....'


(North Island)
A private hotel in Ferndale (outside of Wellington) was the setting for the 'leaving Lothlorien' shots. The bridge you see was covered with elven looking designs and such, and the bottom of a 'fake' huge tree was built at the left end. It's now gone, since it was made of plywood and styrofoam


(South Island)
And here was a pile of burned Orcs!! :) This must be Mercy's favorite, 'oh god, you took a picture of the ground?' pic


(South Island)
Crossing a stream to climb Mt. Sunday otherwise known as Edoras! It's the mound in the background. I think this was my favorite place. It was a beautiful day, and I could have spent all day there.


(South Island)
Play acting at Amon Hen - the place where Frodo informs Aragorn's he's leaving the Fellowship to continue on his own, and Aragorn fights :) Whee!


Not LOTR related. Just a REALLY pretty river. It was the color of blue ice. Utterly amazingly beautiful. Glacial fed river on the South Island.

Comments

[winter-elf.livejournal.com]

I took that picture from the road bridge over the river. On the other side it widened out, but the blue color was not as apparent in the photo's. Too bad it was a 15 min potty break stop, because I would have liked to have taken several rolls of film in this area alone and stayed all day having lunch and watching the river. It was very peaceful, isolated and beautiful and I really need to find out the name of that river!