Banks Peninsula and Methven

Back on the road and we picked up our new wheels, a slightly battered little Toyota. Pushing 15 years old she's clearly seen some road, but she was cheap and seems to work, apart from the odd rattle here and there. We headed out of Christchurch down to the Banks Peninsula, originally thought to be an Island by Cook and the initial explorers, but very much connected to the main land. There are a few little artsy towns, with some interesting galleries and gardens but the main attraction is the main bay which has a pod of hector dolphins, a colony of blue penguins and a clan of fur seals. We took a boat tour around the bay and was lucky enough to see all three, although not quite lucky enough to get many snaps, so you'll have to trust us when we say it was magical. We did manage to get some pictures of the art garden we visited that reminded us of Barcelona.

Next day we head inland to get closer to the mountains again. We're taking the same road we came in on with the van, but this time we will go even further south. On the road we're surprised to see more snow on the mountains than we remember. Confirmed by someone local, they had some cold weather and a fresh dump up on top while we were in Christchurch, nice little touch on a already amazing landscape! We stopped for the night in the little ski town of Methven. Still not enough snow to ski but we heard of some hot pools nearby and we checked it out. It was an incredible experience. The hot pools is a series of swimming canals filled with perfectly warm water. Cherry on top, they have a swim up bar on the adults only side and a jumping platform on the kids side. We enjoyed both very much and felt very relaxed after.

The real reason why we stayed in this remote little town in the middle of nowhere was to go on the Edoras tour. For those of you not acquainted with LotR, (seriously go watch the movies 😂) Edoras is the Capital of Rohan, home of the Rohirrim, the horse lords of Middle Earth. The spot we have come to see is the shooting location used in the Second and Third Movies. All of the Houses and the Great Golden Hall were temporary and have since been removed but the rocky out crop they sat upon is still very much here, rising up out of a great plain, flanked on all sides by the mountains and next to a great silver River, almost exactly how Tolkien described it. Our tour guide for the day was none other than Hammond Peek, I posit that none of you, even the most ardent LotRs fans, know who that is, and neither did we. It turns out he was the Sound Recordist for all three LotR movies and worked on set with all of the actors the entire time. He regaled us with very detailed and interesting stories and brought the whole thing to life with his inside knowledge of how the set looked and felt. He also brought along a few props for us to play with 🗡️🛡️⚔️

It's nice to be back in the road and out in nature again, and back on the Hobbits trail!Read more