Fly you fools...

That morning we woke up and carried on along a coastal highway we camped along the night before.

The drive from the ferry (which we drove our car right onto) to Nelson city the day before proved too long for us after arriving on the South Island at 9:30 pm so partway along a perilous coastal highway we decided on a farm-turned-holiday park as a stopping point. It was a nice experience: dark, quiet, and we got some free banana bread muffins as a welcome gift!

We eventually reached our destination: Reid Helicopters. Soon we found ourselves buckled into the small four-man helicopter and we lifted off for our aerial journey out into the mountains. Like the Dwarves on the backs of the eagles we soared over forested mountaintops, though I im

agine we were a bit more comfortable and we were definitely in good company.

Using elf eyes to see far into the distance

The pilot was the son of the man who flew Peter Jackson and his scouts around New Zealand to find suitable mountain locations to shoot at. This man was also responsible for finding the 'South of Rivendell' scene. Apparently a different place had been decided on after much searching, but flying back to base from another job the man saw this other site and knew right away that it was perfect. So he called back the film team but they were reluctant to view it since they had already planned to film somewhere else. He insisted, flew them to see it, and they immediately agreed that it was a much better choice and started filming there not too long after. It was also this family company who helped fly the actors and all the gear to and from the two sites in the area.

Hiding from the crows

Our first stop was the South of Rivendell location. This is where the fellowship stopped to cook, teach the hobbits to swordfight and ponder what path they should take next. We had tea and enjoyed the unique area as well. 

Sarumon's spies, the crebain, then flew overhead forcing the company to hide, we decided to duck under the same exact rock that Frodo and Aragorn slipped underneath.

The next location we landed at was Dimrill Dale, where the company emerged upon leaving Moria after Gandalf fell. This was an interesting stop as it did have a bit of snow still and we were warned not to walk about much as the snow was actually covering sinkholes that plummeted deep into the earth. As we did not want to join Gandalf and the Belrog in the lowest dungeon on the highest peak, we watched our footing.

Mourning the loss of Gandalf

"Legolas, get them up."

We greatly enjoyed the helicopter tour and would not have been able to access these sites any other way, they were seriously remote! It's crazy to think about how much work it would have taken to actually film for a few weeks at each of them as every single day a ton of equipment and so many people and the actors would have been helicoptered up to the locations. All for just a few short minutes of screen time in the final film. 

We spent the remainder of the afternoon walking about a sand beach and then dined at a nicer seafood restaurant called the Boat Shed Cafe. In a few days we will be travelling to Edoras.