Mount Sunday - Edoras

Sooooo lovely people,

Especially for the nerds and geeks among you and also as a special treat for me, here is my contribution to my first film location for Lord of the Rings in New Zealand. This film series was actually the main reason why New Zealand has always been number 1 on my travel list. The landscape of the film scenes was just so impressive that I always told myself that I would stand in this place myself one day - and lo and behold, I just did it.

After leaving Christchurch, I continued inland towards Mount Sunday, a hill that lies in the middle of a beautiful valley and offers a view of the incredibly beautiful landscape of New Zealand.

The journey to the starting point of the mini-hike was already an adventure and it was the first time I got to know the familiar gravel roads (nothing new for those experienced in New Zealand). In general, the highways here are a mixture of the USA and the country roads at home. The highways are actually just single-lane country roads, but they run straight the whole way and the driver enjoys every single bend.

I felt a little sorry for Fridolin Christopher, as we were only walking on gravel for over an hour. When I got to the parking lot I was really nervous and it was just so incredibly cool for me to be able to visit this place. A dream come true for nerd Britta.

In the Lord of the Rings films, Mount Sunday is the "capital" of the Knights' March and in the film there was actually "only" a city built on the mountain, which some of the companions visit on their journey.

The path to the mountain is also very beautiful and lined with a few bridges over small streams. I had actually planned the hike for the next day, but the weather cleared up in the few hours that I drove up there in the afternoon, so I thought I should take advantage of the hours of sunshine and thus the visibility. The weather in New Zealand is always a bit unpredictable, so every traveler should use the weather as it comes.

The view from Mount Sunday was simply breathtaking and it was simply a DREAM!

After a short break on the mountain and after enjoying the view, I went back to Fridolin and then on (or back) to Lake Camp where I wanted to spend the night at a freedom campsite.

At the campsite there were only toilets without running water. But since I was sweating a little, I decided to wash myself in the lake and have a thorough bath. It was pretty cold, so I was all the more pleased about the hot water bottle I had made beforehand, which I had already put in the car. The view from the van was also a dream to fall asleep to and wake up to.

The next morning we had a quick breakfast and then headed off towards Lake Tekapo. What a wonderful first experience of the Lord of the Rings filming locations.

Your Britta