Today, we decided to check out some locations where The Lord of the Rings movies were filmed and to go on a short hike. The two activities actually go hand in hand nicely, as the films were made in some pretty spectacular natural areas. After some brief internet research, we had a spot in mind that was only about an hour away. For the LOTR nerds, it’s the location from The Two Towers where Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli found a mound of burned Uruk Hai on the edge of Fangorn Forest.

We had a delicious brekkie of Hubbard cereal, scrapped the ice off the car, and headed off. Surprisingly, the location is shown on Google Maps, so we were pretty confident we could find it. After about 30 minutes, the road turned from paved to gravel, but Google continued to point the way.

After another 30 min, Google said we were in the right place. There weren’t any signs, so we parked car on side of road and hopped the fence to see what we could find.

We soon found a small path heading up a frost-covered hill that seemed to be headed in the right direction.

At the top, we found what we were looking for.

Our camera angles were a little different, since our production crew was a smidge smaller than Peter Jackson’s, but the mountains in the background confirmed for us that we were in the right spot. Someone was nice enough to put up a low-budget pike for hoisting low-budget heads.

The scene filmed here has gained some nerd notoriety from the fact that, in the movie Aragorn kicks a helmet in frustration before falling to his knees, distraught over his concern that his hobbits buddies may have been killed. LOTR fans are fond of telling anyone who will listen that the actor playing Aragorn broke his toe kicking the helmet, typically starting with the opening, “Did you know….” Team Hubbard had to do a bit of an obligatory homage. So, kick…

… and anguish.

Having succeeded in whetting our LOTR appetites, we continued up the same gravel road to the Marova Lakes Conservation Park, where we planned to go for a short hike. We soon found a place to park and walked to the edge of the lake. There was no wind, leaving the water glassy smooth.

Further north is another LOTR location — the scene where Frodo leaves the fellowship and Sam chases him into the lake. It’s another “did you know” scene for LOTR fans, as Sam cut his foot wading into the lake. We crossed a suspension bridge to hike along the western bank.

The path followed the western shore of the lake. Between the lack of wind, the lack of any human development, the dampness from the melting snow, and the lush moss, it was stunningly quiet.

The vegetation was unfamiliar to us. Most of the trees appeared to be the same type, with thousands of coin-sized leaves. Despite the small leaves, some grew to huge heights.

Colorful fungi added to the Middle-Earth vibe.

As we hiked, we encountered some surprisingly friendly birds, including this aptly named New Zealand Fantail.

We also had a brief but close encounter with an emerald green parakeet, known locally as a Kakakiri. These birds are apparently less common, and by the time we got our cameras out, it was gone.

We hiked for about 90 minutes before returning to the car. The weather was expected to turn, and sure enough it started to rain on our drive back to Te Anau. We had lunch and spent the rest of the day relaxing. By the evening, the rain was mixed with snow, so we lit a fire in the wood stove in our living room. A great day!

-Will