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Day 9 Shire Reckoning: Monday, Foreyule 13th -- Pellenor Fields, The Flight to the Ford, Rohan, Westfold Village.
Okay...so much is happening on the tour that I'm losing track of what we are doing and where and when we have been. But I will endeavor to try. First off, got some favorable results from my fanfic story I've been passing around (If you want to read it, click here). Penny and I had an interesting discussion about Linda and Eron and the whole fortuitous adventure we had. I find it interesting that Linda and Eron went to the party as "The Valar" who were just choosing to appear as Linda and Eron. But then I got to thinking. Joseph Campbell talks about these seemingly random events that happen and that can shape the turning points of your life (aka 'Supernatural Aid'). On top of this, one of the friends we met on the tour, Vicky, is in the publishing industry. Add to that, that this morning I found out that the woman, Jennifer, I'd been speaking to is Jennifer Fallon! A noted fantasy author in Australia and the U.K.! (www.jenniferfallon.com) And add that she is very easy with her advice and doesn't mind talking about how she puts her novels together and what pitfalls to avoid etc... I don't believe in coincidences. Things happen for a reason. Penny and I talked, and are increasingly of the opinion that this entire Red Carpet adventure was meant by the higher power as a wake up call. A "Call to Adventure" of monumental proportions...a kind of 'let me show you what you could be doing instead of facing the 3 walls of your cubicle every day' and now it is hanging out there as a challenge, do we accept the challenge and try to enter this new strange world that lies across the threshold? Or do we refuse the call and simply accept that this was a once in a lifetime thing and that this will never happen again? Time will tell. I for one am going to work on T.O.E. as soon as we get back. (work has started btw...) On to the travelogue... Departed from Twizel and went to the Pellenor Fields location. There, out on the distances, just over a small ridge, a rider charged at full gallop at us. (Horses can move a lot faster than you'd think). The rider's name was Ciaran (?), and the women on the bus seemed to think he was a "hottie". He told us about what it was like shooting the Ride of the Rohirrim moment for ROTK.
Sounds pretty cool. I guess they had nearly 500 hundred horses there at one point....but were having a bit of trouble getting them to charge all in a straight line and together. Pellenor was very cool and with the amount of CG in the film, I didn't think I could recognize it. But it was actually very recognizable. The little ridge line where the Rohirrim gather before the charge, where the orcs formed their lines.....it was all there. Very cool. Made me want to see the movie again right away. Screencaps from the trailer for ROTK
Then we moved to the forest location for the "Flight to the Ford" sequence in FOTR and looked at the forest where the 9 were chasing Arwen and Frodo. Also very recognizable (and a substantial distance from the Ford of Bruinen location I might add).
For those with broadband another 4 Meg QT movie. Departed from there and went to Rohan. Don't know what the real name is....(I'll have to look it up later). It is Rohan in my mind from here on out though. The landscape was very strange. Plains and rolling hills of tussock grass interspersed with large schist rock formations. Really weird and looked like the surface of another planet. A lot of the locations were right here within a few meters of one another. The rock where Aragorn stops to listen to the Uruks.
The small canyon where the Uruks run by with Merry and Pippin (henceforth refered to as 'Manflesh' gorge).
The canyon where Gimli slips and falls and mentions that dwarves are natural sprinters (which is like 10 feet from Manflesh Gorge...no kidding). And the place where the 3 hunters hide from the Rohirrim...the "What news from the Mark?" place... Had some fun hiking around there and some folks recreated the "Manflesh" scene. Quickbeam did a very disturbing version of that, which was really funny, but sadly, I didn't get it on tape. A girl named Malia carried another girl, Gabi, down the Uruk canyon. I got a great picture of it as they recreated the Pippin dropping the Elven brooch scene.
Hiked on over the hill (while carefully avoiding all the sheep and cow leavings) to the site of the Westfold village that gets burned down on the edge of a lake. Very recognizable location very cool.
Then back on the bus to Cromwell where I had a very filling fish and chips dinner and we watched a neat documentary about the Aliens franchise on New Zealand TV. Oh yeah...South Island Ice Cream is the BOMB!
Wrapping this up now. Tomorrow, River Anduin "Breaking of the Fellowship" location and Fangorn forest.
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Day 10