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There has been a lot of grumbling on this tour about 'lack of organisation' or 'planning', but dealing with 48 people, all with differing expectations and requirements would defeat most, as I discover to my cost when I agree to organise the Wednesday helicopter flight, figuring it's the only way to get the tour I want rather than 'the lowest common denominator'.
I have just one day's activity to arrange for eight people; our tour guide, Ben, has about 20 activities to organise across two days with forty-eight people, all prepared to change their mind or adjust schedules as more information becomes available. It would prove physically impossible to cope with all the logistics and keep everyone happy. As it is, I finally manage to sort the helicopter tour out after eight 'can I change that please?' calls to Heliworks as people change their minds as each bit of new information on all the options for this one trip become available, or people recalculate their finances. By the end of it, I promise myself never to volunteer for anything like this again, and realise I would make the world's worst tour guide! On the positive side I've managed to negotiate a tour for six people that fits in with other schedules and will visit not just all the sites on the longest LOTR 'standard' tour on offer but also the mountain top featured in the opening scenes of 'The Two Towers', and at NZ400 less than the advertised standard tour cost. Actually 'negotiate' is the wrong word - the folks at the helicopter company Heliworks have just offered the large discount and a customised trip based on the fact that there are six of us.
		All this organising is going on during the two hours we have to travel from Te Anau to Deer Park Heights, where several scenes from 'The Two Towers' were filmed. Unlike other locations this is all on public land and clearly sign-posted with 'LOR 1', 'LOR 2' signs etc, each of which can be cross-referenced using Ian Brodie's 'Location Guide Book'. In case you haven't guessed it yet, this book, in its revised edition, should be considered a compulsory purchase for all visitors to New Zealand as it highlights not just all the diverse locations used in the movie, but as our helicopter pilot advises us a few days later 'it enables a lot of tourists to see a lot of beautiful New Zealand locations that are a bit off the beaten track that they wouldn't see otherwise'. Our first stop is at Deer Park Heights which has (yet again!) some stunning views of the valleys, lakes and the 'Remarkable Mountains' around Queenstown. The weather has changed for the better and is now picture postcard perfect. With the other 'Gondor' tour group now stationed in Queen's Town their main guide Vic James, the owner of Red Carpet, is free to join us. Before visiting the main movie sites we first visit a location that gives a particularly scenic view of the lake, which I use as an excuse to take a picture of our three main guides. They pose withe one of the NZ $2 plastic props, which Ben has been carrying around. I notice it is now inscribed with the legend 'Best night I ever had! Thank you!!!' and is seemingly signed by Liv Tyler. The handwriting looks suspiciously similar to Ben's! As we walk up the path to the main movie sites we pass an incongruous Korean building that has clearly seen better days. It looks very odd amongst the New Zealand scenery, but all becomes clear when we spot a notice on the side of the fence: "Movie Site. No Entry. This Korean prison was built as a movie set for a Walt Disney film 'The Rescue' in 1986". It seems odd that this eyesore, surrounded by a barbed wire fence, is allowed to stand in this beautiful setting, where the 'Lord of the Rings' sets all had to be dismantled and the land left as it was originally found. The movie locations (mainly those used during the 'warg attack' sequence where Aragorn ends up getting thrown over the edge of a cliff) are all very clearly marked and easy to recognise. There is much clowning around with reenactments by the tour members, particularly the scene where Aragorn falls over a cliff edge into a river. The river isn't there - it's actually a separte location, and this becomes a common theme as we later discover when those who know the various locations intimately explain they cannot figure out how the movie makers seamlessly blended two geographically distant locations together. A few of us make an extra little hike to get some spectacular views of Queensland in the vally below. Excitement is rising, as most of us know that this was the movie cast's favourite location, or have heard from friends that this is the real 'fun' centre of The South Island. In many ways this is the 'last' day of the organised tour since the remaining two days are free for us to do many of the optional activities availble in Queenstown, with (thank goodness!) three consecutive nights in a single hotel. There is an eagerness to get to Queenstown to explore as quickly as possible, but we are to have lunch first at Arrowtown. Any disappointment at not heading for Queenstown quickly evaporates when we hit Arrowtown. This very pretty tourist village, originally a gold mining town as its Western-style buildings indicate, captivates everyone. There are many excellent little eating places and tourist shops, and I find it a complete contrast to Cromwell which appears to be a similarly sized tourist village, but lacked the charm we find here. With lunch out of the way, we have two more movie sites to visit before saying goodbye to our coach. Both are near Queenstown. The first is on a publicly accessible road and was the location used for the Ithilien scene where Frodo and Sam see the Mumak (large elephants) marching across the plain in the second movie. The location is instantly recognisable except that there is a large lake and mountains in the background which in the movie have been replaced using CGI with more wooldand scrub. We then move onto our final location - Amon Hen - the scene from the first movie where Frodo, after being challenged by Boromir to hand over the Ring, tells Aragorn he is leaving the Fellowship and where Aragorn is attacked by orcs. The location is up a private road and we're told to keep quiet as we pass the owner's house. In the event this is pretty pointless as dogs bark continually at us. Either the owners are out, or they've decided to ignore the tourists traipsing up the hill to see the location. When we arrive the stone structure used in the movie is obviously gone, but the hill is recognisable, as is the slope which the orcs run up - although it's so small we can't work out how the orcs ran up the hill in such numbers without some clever CGI work having been involved. As usual the ground is combed by souvenir collectors for artefacts from the movie and, amazingly, after all this time part of the stone structure is found as well as some polysteirine painted to look like stone work. As at Edoras, I'm happy at the obvious pleasure those who find such artefacts and pack them away derive from them, but can't pretend to understand it! At last we check into our hotel - The Rydges Hotel along the lake front. The place is very swanky, arguably the best hotel we've stayed in, and my room is on the first 'Mezanine' floor with a little balcony that has a nice view out over the lake and mountains. Most of us quickly dump our luggage and set off to explore Queenstown. The town is full of bustle and energy, possibly because a lot of people who've been taking part in the triathlon last weekend are still here. The excitement is contagious and it's not hard to see why people fall in love with the place. The average age appears to be early-to-mid 20's with very few old farts like myself around, and the enthusiasm of youth seems to be everywhere.
Every second shop seems to be seeling some wild variation on an adrenaline water, air or wire sport. The place is very obviously a tourist town, and a rather expensive one compared with the others we've visited, but it's easy to see why property prices here have shot up since foreigners discovered the place when staying here for location filming for 'Lord of the Rings'. Tomorrow is to be a pretty lazy day with the chance for a bit of a lie in (or so we foolishly thought!) before I head off to do the 134 metre bungee jump over the Nevis river, and then a farewell tour dinner in the evening. The next two days are, arguably, to prove to be the best of the whole vacation! Back to Day 14 report Forward to Day 16 report Stay tuned for future reports (indicated by a photo appearing in the main Itinerary calendar)

Email: ian@iansmith.co.uk