Darkhouse on Goodreads
Red Fox on Goodreads
Dead Sky Morning on Goodreads
The Benson on Goodreads
Lying Season on Goodreads
On Demon Wings on Goodreads
Old Blood on Goodreads
Into the Hollow on Goodreads


Monday, January 04, 2010

NERD BATTLE



Twizel, New Zealand.

The town that never was...supposed to be there more than a few years. The town was constructed peice by peice a long time ago in order to service the men, who were building canals and dams for hydro, and their families. Well after the work was done, residents elected to keep the town where it was - the original plan was to move it. After all, each house was one of those mobile-type above ground houses that could be placed on a truck and moved away.

And such, the town of Twizel remains. It's not very pretty and it's nothing to write home about but the location could not be more convenient for exploring the beautiful Mackenzie Country which surrounds it and which also houses such treasures such as Lindis Pass, Lake Tekapo and Pukaki, Mount Cook and Peleanor Fields.

Yes, Peleonor Fields, where the epic battle for Rohan took place in the third Lord of the Rings book, Return of the King.

If you ever find yourself in Twizel, for some reason, and with nothing to do, I suggest taking the LOTR two-hour tour from Discovery Tours.

I'm not a huge LOTR fan - I never read the books - but I do have a family connection to the film since my brother-in-law is tight with Peter Jackson and worked on all three films. I also thought the films were dope, plus my bestie is obsessed with the films. We had already visited the set back in 2003, in Wellington, and saw an epic battle with orcs being filmed, and got to touch and feel all the costumes. It was frickin' awesome.

Anyway, this time I decided to treat my bf with this epicly nerdy tour (Merry Xmas, Baby!) since he had read all the books and loved the films.

This tour was pretty low-key - we were lead by Vernon, a man who worked on the film while it filmed for three months outside of Twizel, and went around to the private land/farm where those battle scenes were filmed. We heard lots of the gossip about what happened on the set - really cool tidbits - and watched the corresponding scenes from the actual DVD. It was cool to hear about how some shots were made too - we were sitting in a van on the field and you could see in some scenes that everything looked as it did when we were there except maybe the mountains to the right were lifted from another scene.

There is a lot to explain - our heads are bursting with all this secret filming knowledge, but I don't want to bore my readers. Instead I'll just leave you with some pictures of the best part of the tour: dressing up in costume and having nerd battles with each other. Enjoy!!









Killed the King of Rohan!


Mike is sad about it...all hail King Whatshisname


Vengance is mine!


Retreat!



I am no man *stab you in the face*


Eowyn and the witch king...scandalous!

Just a couple of orcs!




PS for an amazing place to stay in Twizel and a good place to eat, please read my post on my travel blog here.

16 comments:

BonBon Rose Girls Kristin said...

All I can think of is Role Models. Ah ha ha

Wanderlusting said...

Oh God. You are so right.

Annie Spandex said...

Lol, you nerds! It is SO gorgeous there..

GS said...

horray a post! lol. I LOVED lotr!! I wanna dress up and geek out for a day in that field. holy view!

MizzJ said...

hahaha hilarious post! My nerd side is uber jealous.

myedit said...

Too funny! You say it's a gift for the bf but you really got into it too... Hey, costumes, beautiful landscapes and set secrets sounds awesome to me.

Jessi said...

Haha, yes!! I would totally get into that shiz... love the movies, love the books. Good times!
J

Maddy said...

So jealous! Beautiful pictures! I'm not even a big LOTR fan, but this looks so much fun :)

Sierra said...

I am not a LOTR fan either but this looks like a blast! Love your fighting pictures, ha ha. Too much fun!

Eyeliah said...

orcs indeed, lol. that first pic is so epic!

Cupcake Blonde said...

What beautiful scenery! And your own battle too! The perfect day. :)

Anonymous said...

How cool!!! I'm a huge fan of LOTR and was just floored to see a few of the locations where the scenes were shot. And the costumes!!! Wow... Maybe one day you'll read the books? :-)

daisychain said...

What an incredible place, so gorgeous

Chelsea Talks Smack said...

omg, i would love to nerd it out there.

Dane said...

That looks like so much fun.. and I had to laugh at the Orcs photo. ;)




www.trustme-itsparadise.blogspot.com

asiancajuns (Cath) said...

hahaha. That's awesome! It looks amazing there - great photos.