Warning: For Lord of the Rings Fans Only

So this posting will only be fun if you are a fan of The Lord of the Rings. In Queenstown I did a day tour with some Tolkien experts and about 6-7 other fans of the books and movies. The main guide showed us a bit of what happens behind-the-scenes and even had a copy of one of the scripts. Here are a few excerpts from my favorite parts of The Return of the King:

This scene really shows the beauty of the Southern Alps of New Zealand. (Again, it won't be very interesting if you don't know the movie.)

This next part is probably my favorite moment of the whole trilogy. The Kingdom of Gondor is losing the war and is on the brink of absolute defeat when they suddenly hear the trumpets of the Riders of Rohan coming to fight. The Rohan King Theoden gives his speech as the sun is rising:And of course I have to love the scene when woman triumphs over evil. Eowyn has dressed as a man to sneak into the battle and comes face to face with the Witch King of Agmar. This is where he tells her "You fool - no man can kill me!"
Of course we didn't just read the script on the tour - they took us to some of the sites where the film was shot. This is the opening shot of the movie where they explain the history of the ring.

This is the river that Isildur jumps into but the ring falls off his finger and he gets killed by orcs. The ring then is lost in the river until Deagol finds it while fishing and Smeagol kills him for it. When the movie was shot they actually dammed up the river to make it deeper.

This is the river Anduin that the Fellowship floats down in elven boats. It is also the part where they see the two huge kings of stone with their arms out guarding the borders of Gondor. (The statues weren't really built - they just used miniatures.)

This is where the people of Rohan flee to Helm's Deep.

But along the way the refugees are attacked by Saruman's Warg riders. This is where Legolas looks out and sees the riders coming. (In the film it is inverted so he's looking the other way.)

During the battle one of the wargs pulls Aragorn off a cliff. Gimli, Legolas, and King Theoden look over the cliff to see if they can see his body. (The guide had the picture references to be able to picture it more clearly.)

And then I fell off the cliff but I was able to climb back up. Why couldn't Aragorn do it? It's only about a 4 foot drop.

This is where Merry tries to encourage Eowyn and explains that he just wants to go to battle so he can help his friends.

This is a nice shot of the city of Gondor with Mordor behind (actually the town of Wanaka is behind those mountains). It looks so much different with the CGI added.

And then of course we got to play with some props. These aren't the real ones from the movie because the real ones were either given to the actors or locked away until people decide what to do with them. Even though they were replicas they were made with the same material as the real ones. First is Gimli's axe, then Eowyn's sword, then King Theoden's sword, then Lord Elrond's sword who later gave it to Arwen ("What's this? A ranger caught off his guard?"), then Aragorn's reforged sword, then the shards of Narcil that Isildur used to cut the ring from Sauron's finger, then Sting, which Bilbo gave to Frodo ("The blade glows blue when orcs are near"), then Aragorns hunting knife, then Legolas's two blades that he wears crossed on his back in battle.

Gimli: "It's true you don't see many Dwarf women. In fact, they are so alike in voice and appearance, that they're often mistaken for Dwarf men."

Aragorn: "It's the beards."

Aragorn: "You have some skill with the blade."

Eowyn: "The women of this country learned long ago that those without swords can still die upon them."

I don't think Legolas says anything when he pulls his swords out, but they're still cool.

The cloak I'm wearing is the actual cloak from the movie (suspected to be Samwise Gamgee's cloak) Notice Aragorn's ring with the two serpents - one devouring the other. Of course I have my own ring of power. It says "CTR" on it.

Frodo: "This is Sting. You've seen it before."

Heading back to the Shire . . . Home is behind, the world ahead,

And there are many paths to tread

Through shadows to the edge of night,

Until the stars are all alight.

Then world behind and home ahead,

We’ll wander back to home and bed.

Mist and twilight, cloud and shade,

Away shall fade! Away shall fade!