Ride to Rohan – 08 January 2008

Oh what a beautiful day it turned out to be to ride into Rohan. Hayley and I started with a big cooked breakfast at our bed and breakfast, chatting with our hosts, Michael and Jean. Michael wanted to know how “this GPS thing” worked and I explained. Jean walked around with a tennis racquet like fly swatter hunting for big house flies. She was a little firecracker and just hated those little buggers. She managed to get a few too.
After breakfast we found ourselves at the Methven Information Centre awaiting our transport, the EDORA5, to take us to Mount Sunday, also known as Edoras, the capital of Rohan. The EDORA5 is one of the vehicles used by Hassle-free Tours, a company that has been carboNZero certified for using fuel made from recycled hotel and restaurant cooking oil. On board we were treated to Lord of the Rings trivia delivered by our guide, Mack. Some of what he told us we already knew from the DVD extras, some we knew from prior tours in the past two and a half weeks, yet some came as a surprise to us. One of the big surprise pieces we were not aware of was Sean Connery was initially sought after for the roll of Gandalf, yet he turned the roll down. Now rumor is, Peter Jackson and New Line Cinemas wanted him so bad Connery was offered a salary of ten to fifteen percent of the Box Office ticket sales. That would have translated into a payment of four hundred to six hundred million dollars. I bet Connery is kicking himself for that decision now, although could you envision Connery as Gandalf after the fine performance given by Ian MacKellen? Another little tidbit we came across is the nine members of the Fellowship all got a tattoo reading “The Elvish Nine.” When Peter Jackson found out about it he too got a tattoo, only his read “The Elvish Ten.”
When Mack appeared to be finished telling all his stories the Lord of the Rings soundtrack began to play. The music climaxed as we came around a bend in the road and Mack uttered the words “Welcome to Rohan.” As we descended into the river valley surrounding Mount Sunday (Edoras) we made numerous stops for everyone to get out, stretch their legs, and grabbed a photograph or two. Driving along the side of Mount Sunday, across some river branches, and up the back of side of the mount we parked halfway up. From here we traveled on foot the rest of the way. At the summit we were shown pictures while Mack explained where the buildings sat, including the Golden Hall, and where Helm’s Deep resided in reference to Edoras. When the explanations were over, it was photo time. What really made these photos awesome is we had replica props to hold in the photos. Hayley and I got to dual while Hayley garnered Sting, a Hobbit’s sword, and I wielded Aragorn’s sword. We also took pictures of us with Gimli’s axe and the flag of Rohan. It was definitely a very cool and rock ‘em sock ‘em moment for the two of us.
Back at the base we had lunch and a champagne toast to celebrate Rohan. Unable to purchase souvenirs, because they got wiped out during the holidays, we left with our photographic memories and a cork from the champagne bottle. This was my second cork to be saved from the honeymoon, the first from the bottle we received from Jean and Michael last night. On the road to Methven, we both took the opportunity to catch a few zzz’s on the bus ride back while listening to more of the Lord of the Rings soundtrack.
In Methven, after making a confirmation call to our hot air balloon ride vendor for tomorrow we gathered the car and made our way to Christchurch. Without the GPS of the North Island, finding our bed and breakfast was my one big worry in trying to find. With directions emailed to us in hand, Hayley truly stepped up and navigated us through Christchurch and up Mt. Pleasant to our bed and breakfast.
Not eating a lot for lunch we were starving. Our host, Michael, called ahead to a French restaurant just down the road and got us in. The food was excellent, yet we had to wait a considerable amount of time for the food. It took us nearly two hours to dine. Two hours we really did not have to spare, as we needed to get to bed early because tomorrow starts at 4am. With the night getting short I have been typing like the wind while watching Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone on New Zealand television. Here in New Zealand it is not called the Sorcerer’s Stone.
Cheers,
Bob and Hayley