Written by my husband, Steve:

In addition to the natural beauty of the South Island, we discovered we had also wandered into Tolkien’s Middle-earth.

Day 74, Monday, November 18: Te Anau – Middle-earth

Having survived our night in the underwhelming Fiordland Lakeview Motel, we were much relieved when our Cheeky Kiwi Travel tour bus pulled into the motel’s parking lot at 9 a.m. We were embarking on an all-day Te Anau highlights and Lord of the Rings (LOTR) tour. Our relief quickly morphed into pleasant surprise when our young, enthusiastic driver/guide Douglas informed us that we were the only two on the tour!

Douglas further endeared himself to us when we learned that, in addition to being a LOTR expert, he was also a professional photographer with much experience as a wildlife photographer. I was one happy tourist!

First stop was the famous jetty on Lake Te Anau, Douglas’ favorite location for photographing the lake. It did not disappoint. Having informed him that I was a retired wildlife biologist, he happily pointed out and identified any bird encountered. He further made sure I had the opportunity to photograph what we saw.

My own enthusiasm ratcheted up a notch when we arrived at our next stop: the Te Anau Bird Sanctuary. Managed by New Zealand’s Department of Conservation, it features many rare and/or hard to see birds from throughout the country.

The big star is the flightless Takahē. It is a swamphen indigenous to New Zealand and the largest living member of the rail family. It was thought extinct until a small population was discovered in 1948 near Te Anau. Overhunting, loss of habitat, and the introduction of predators all played a role in its almost demise. There is now a longstanding breeding and reintroduction (to sanctuaries and predator-free islands) program to where there are now around 500 individuals. We were lucky to see one wandering around its enclosure.

After that exhilarating encounter, we now headed off to Middle-earth!

First stop was Rainbow Reach on the Waiau River. In LOTR, it played the role to the river Anduin. The overlook from just off the road affords a great perspective of the river, and you can easily imagine seeing the Fellowship in their canoes as they paddle down the river after leaving Lothlorien.

Then a quick jaunt south to Lake Manapouri for an early lunch before heading to the Mavora Lakes area where many LOTR scenes were filmed.

Our first stop there was a cable bridge spanning the Mararoa River as it enters North Mavora Lake.  If you stand in the middle of the bridge looking into the lake, you will see a mountain looming at the north end. However, through the magic of movies, you can photoshop out the mountain, insert a waterfall, and have the location of where Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas launched Boromir in his boat after he was killed.

Douglas then walked us along the lakeshore for a little while until stopping and pointing across the lake. Yep, pretty obvious – we were standing where Frodo and Sam left the Fellowship!

Turning his back to the lake, Douglas then led us into the bordering forest. A short walk up the hill and we were facing a vaguely familiar tree. When Douglas sat down behind one of the jutting roots, we suddenly knew what we were looking at – the tree Frodo was hiding behind after escaping from Boromir and from the Uruk Hai hunting him. The tree from which Frodo sadly shook his head when Merry and Pippin were encouraging him to run over to them.

Speaking of Merry and Pippin encouraging Frodo to join them behind their log, Douglas walked a few more feet uphill to show us that very log (although it looks a little sadder after 25 years of forest driven decay)! Douglas then slightly changed our orientation to the log and it instantly transformed into the log over which the Uruk Hai ran as they hunted the Fellowship.

Back to the van and Douglas opened the back to show us some LOTR memorabilia for us to view/enjoy. Márta picked up Sting and quickly took on the guise of Frodo, while I grabbed a staff and cloak and became Gandalf! (It’s nice to know that I can still occasionally harken back to my LOTR youth.)

After that short, enjoyable interlude, we were back in the van and headed to our final LOTR destination. After driving a couple of miles (okay, kilometers) down the road, Douglas pulled over across from a paddock full of sheep. He hopped and we slowly clambered over a waist high wire fence and trudged up a surprisingly steep little hillock. Atop it was a single wooden pole. (No orc head on it as in the film!) Ah yes, the battlefield from which Merry and Pippin escaped into Fangorn Forest during the fight between the Rohirrim and the orcs. Finally, without taking a step, Douglas turned us to face away from the forest and realized that we were now standing where Gandalf whistled for Shadowfax.

That completed our all too short visit to Middle-earth, but it was one we will long remember. Douglas had entertained us with stories from the movie or his life at each of the locations we visited making it feel even more personal. On the way back to Te Anau in the van, we amused ourselves by looking through some of the LOTR books he had with him.

The tour officially ended at the Fiordland National Park Visitor Centre in Te Anau where another Cheeky Kiwi Travel van was to pick us up at 5 for the return trip to Queenstown. But because Douglas now knew of my hyper interest in New Zealand birds, he instead proposed dropping us off a couple of kilometers away so that I (we) could see the occupied floating nest of a Great crested grebe. Needless to say, I said yes. Fortunately, the occupants were home and I got a couple of nice photos.

We had plenty of time before our pick-up, so we took our time walking to the visitor center. We walked through it, checked out the surroundings, and were nicely surprised when the van showed up 15 minutes early.

We were back in Queenstown and checked into the same hotel from two nights before by 7. We loved New Zealand, but our one-day side trip to Middle-earth was, in many ways, just as memorable.