In the Land of the Horse Lords

[mariole]

Wading clear of the swampy areas near the Anduin, we headed west towards the remarkable land of Rohan. These mountains are called "The Remarkables". They really are. Everyone remarks on them.

Comments

[jewelsong]

If that were in America, it would be called "Rohanland," and you'd have to pay a whopping admission fee to get in so you could ride the Rohirrimcoaster and the skycars between Edorascastle and HelmsDeep Brauhaus.

This is so completely and totally true that it shouldn't be funny. But it is funny...I can just picture it, too! And don't forget the souvenir shop with the overpriced official merchandise.

[mariole]

That's true! There was one LOTR shop back in town (Queenstown), featuring rather up-scale offerings as I recall-- nothing at the site at all (it was the town park). There might have been more in the heyday, but all that remains today are the little white signs marking a LOTR location, that you could not possibly decipher unless you'd previously bought a guidebook (which I had done).

[mariole]

Yes, the Kiwis are obviously more tasteful than we crass Americans. I was going to answer that, since PJ filmed in Deerfield Heights Park above Queenstown, they wouldn't make this into a theme park because it already was a park-- an animal-feeding thing where you could buy corn and drive up and find your car mobbed by llamas and goats looking for a handout.

But on reflection, it wouldn't have stopped Americans from launching into a building frenzy. "See Rohanland!" the billboards would shout, blocking the spectacular scenery that would have made it worthwhile to visit in the first place. So thank you, New Zealanders, for caring enough about your beautiful land to not do that. :)

[aprilkat]

I laughed from start to finish.

How did you get so clever, anyway?!? Thanks for a great read and beautiful pics.

[mariole]

I'm so glad you can roll along with one of my more sarcastic moments. (It's the Minnesota upbringing.) Actually, we were dying with laughter taking these pics. Our guidebook was wretchedly bad-- it was as if someone had phoned in an account to someone else who'd never been there, and did the best he could at making up directions to these locations sight unseen.

Peachy had a theory that we were supposed to start at the end and work backwards (in other words, the directions started from the top of the hill and work down towards the entrance). That worked for the first 3 sites. Then #4 was, "Starting from the entrance gate..." So it was a continual challenge to find these little markers that said "LOTR 5" or whatever site 5 in the filming was. We were in such hysterics by the time we hit the restaurant that the other patrons kindly made an intervention--we were laughing too hard, and they were concerned! Oh, that was a great day.

[lame_pegasus]

Oh, come on--- you're just envious of the horse. *snickers*

[mariole]

Everybody is envious of that horse. Or envious of Aragorn-- horses have very soft lips, after all.

[shirebound]

where Gimli fell off his horse in front of the people evacuating Edoras, just as Tolkien had written!

Ohhh, the comedy in that book! Your posts bring out every nuance.

[mariole]

It's almost like reading Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, only set in the past instead of the future. ;)

Actually, the sad part is that Tolkien did write in humor-- truly funny, character-driven humor, that we were not allowed to see because PJ's idea of character is, "Now you swing this sword." I suppose I'm allowed my snarky moments in my own LJ, but I'll rein it in now. And those invented scenes did lead to some wonderful re-enactments, so I guess it worked after all. We just needed the right production to fully appreciate them.

[shirebound]

What was the name of the tour company? There's a chapter in The Frodo Franchise about the LOTR tour groups, and maybe there's something interesting about yours.

[mariole]

We didn't use a tour group. We laid out our itinerary just to see New Zealand, actually. If we fell across a LOTR site, we'd see it, but we only went out of our way twice, once to see Edoras and once to take the Shire tour at Matamata

[addie71]

I love reading of your adventures! Especially the ones that recall some of the best "Tolkien Moments" of the films.

[mariole]

Hee! We had a blast. It's fun revisiting the silliness we had.