One does not simply walk into Mordor...

Today we drove into Mordor.

Mount Doom

Sauron's evil Unicorn X-ing?

The day was uncharacteristically sunny, and it did not rain once (like it has every day leading up to today). There was no spectral fog, or awful stink in the air. It was brutally cold while we were exploring the sites of Emyn Muil and Mordor. Filming in Mordor took place on the side of Mt. Ruapehu, a large, jaggedy, snow-capped volcano in the middle of New Zealand's North Island. Mount Doom itself was actually a neighbouring volcanic peak. Our hotel is located right between the two. Strange to find such nice accommodations this side of the Black Gates...

About as strange as the road signs on approach to the area this morning. 

We spent a good couple of hours clambering about the blasted volcanic rock and steep bluffs of the Emyn Muil location where Frodo and Sam got lost before Gollum lead them to the Marshes. We felt about as isolated as them, as it was accessible via a nearly deserted ski village.

Joe is a happy gollum

Janelle is a sneaky gollum

We also saw the general location where Isildur cut the ring from Sauron's hand in the Great Battle of the Last Alliance. We took it upon ourselves to re-enact the entire scene quite accurately:

It was in this moment when all hope had failed,

that Janelle took up her sword...

And cut the ring from Joe's hand (notice the flying glove)

Fortunately we likely won't be seeing the foreboding, erupting, lightning-y version of Mordor, but we do have emergency instructions in the hotel manual in case of eruptions. 

We're going to be enjoying the Hotel facilities for the rest of the day...which is a good thing, because after staying in campgrounds for the past week, we barely made it to the hotel...

I can't carry it for you... but I can carry you!!!

It began with a hole in the ground...

One of our first stops in Middle Earth was Hobbiton of course.

We woke up to a bright sunny morning, so we got ready and drove to the Shire's Rest Cafe where the tour would depart from. We're starting to suspect the GPS is messing with us as it seems to always direct us off the main highways down quiet farm roads, but this time we actually did need to drive quite a ways down through the rolling hills of a thousand acre sheep farm. The GPS went completely screwy at this point, helping to add to the illusion of entering Middle Earth. There are no GPS satellites in the Shire's night skies. There were clouds though, so we were hoping they were of the picturesque variety, and not the kind that would actually rain all over us.

Low and behold, it rained, but that did not damper our spirits as we hopped on the bus and drove down to the private location. Everyone grabbed big green umbrellas, but thankfully it did stop raining for most of the tour.

We were lead through Hobbiton, with ample time to take many photos in front of the holes. They were of different sizes, some small, some large, so we could be both hobbits and wizards!

95% of the landscape of Hobbiton was natural and needed no alteration for filming. Scouts had visited over a hundred other locations before they found this one which was perfect for the Shire.

We visited the home of Bilbo and Frodo Baggins at the top of the hill. The tree that sits atop it is artificial (the only fake tree on site), it cost $500 000 to construct and involved importing over 25 000 fake leaves from Taiwan that were then wired on by hand. 

Thanks to Janelle's awesome knowledge she won a leaf that had fallen of this tree to keep as a souvenir!

We then went down to the party field and saw the enormous party tree that Bilbo Baggin's stood and gave his speech under on his eleventy-first birthday. After that is was off to the Green Dragon pub for a drink. We sampled the stout (very harsh beer), a lighter golden ale, an apple cider and a non-alcoholic ginger beer. We also tried a few dishes on the menu including a cold pork pie and a beef and ale pie. 

The whole experience took about two hours... but we did the tour twice and happened to get the same tour guide for both visits, he laughed and thought we were pretty hard-core (or nerdy). 

Joe running to catch up with the party of dwarves