Mt Sunday on a Tuesday - Visiting "Edoras"

Tuesday 19 May

What a wonderful day - I can only apologise for the enormous photo dump… it was so special I couldn’t stop taking pictures!

It all started with a freezing dawn, and weirdly got colder as the sun began to rise, and a spooky mist spread across Lake Camp and then peeled back to reveal a glorious morning. As I got up the cloud to the south of the lake dropped and drifted across the water as two black swans swam serenely into the mists; the east side cleared first - but you can see the mist over Lake Clearwater behind the trees & the ridge in the last pic above. At 6.45 when I woke, the temperature outside Banjo was -1.4*C - as the mist drifted across then the sun started to rise it dropped down to -5.4*C by 8.20am! It was so cold, the droplets of water on the willow branches all turned to ice.

By 10am the skies were largely clear and blue overhead; we could see the snow capped peaks in the distance, and the still waters created beautiful symmetrical reflections.

Louis went over and had a chat with Marcel from Gallichan Truck Life NZ and do some modelling as both were wearing the same chunky cardigan from Geckos in Kaikōura! We waved them off as they set off with BEAST on the homeward leg of their travels via Hanmer Springs.

We packed a picnic and on the advice of Sarah & Marcel from Gallichan Truck Life Nz we set off up the road to Mt Sunday, better known to many for the last 2 decades as "Edoras", capital of Rohan in the Lord of the Rings movie “The Two Towers”. We drove through cloud for much of the journey, with visibility down to 30-40m at times, but the sun started to break through as we passed Mt Potts Station. We had obviously been climbing as we drove - coming out of the main bulk of cloud we were surrounded by heavy frost even where the sun was shining. The tussock grass and feathery grasses along the fence line were crisp & sparkly with frost and the merino sheep blended in with their frosty surroundings - bet they were glad of their thick wool fleeces!

As we set off from the car park, to walk over to the fascinating rock formation where Peter Jackson created his iconic fantasy city, Mt Sunday was still heavily shrouded in cloud, but it got sunnier as we crossed the tussocky grasslands. In the third triptych below you can see Mt Sunday as it is today on top and bottom, and Edoras as it appears in "The Two Towers" in the centre. The amazing rocky outcrop was absolutely fascinating and you could see why it was chosen as a Lord of the Rings location.

Climbing up the rocks to the summit opened up the most spectacular panoramic views in all directions - it really is a stunning location. And luckily for us the cloud was lifting and drifting off along the Rangitata river valley, making everything even more spectacular. It got quite busy up here - mostly LotR fans I reckon! We saw one couple climbing up with a large backpack - I reckon it was stuffed with cos-play outfits. And we met a couple of young women from Ceres in Scotland and northern England who were on the last week of their travels in NZ, and were off to Hobbiton for the second time on their drive back up to Auckland for their flight home.

In the triptych above you can see the view looking down at the Rangitata River Valley - real life top & bottom, Edoras in the centre. I might even have to watch the movies again now I've visited so many of the locations.

Made me laugh… there was a geodesic marker which noted the top of the mountain, the highest point, "the market cap"!

It was amazing - as we walked back down the track in the shade at around 12.30, the frost was still heavy & thick, almost like a hoar frost on the grass & the ground.

Deep Creek runs down to the east of Mt Sunday and joins the Rangitata River - over half of the chinook or king salmon in this river spawn here in these pristine waters. The swallows were having a lovely time swooping back and forth over the waters, scooping up an insect here and there - almost too fast to capture on camera.

There were other smaller waterways and ponds littering the landscape - the waters are crystal clear as they cut through the tussock grass.

After drinking in our fill of this amazing Middle Earth experience we drove on to the end of the road, to Erewhon Station, home of the working horse in NZ (breeders of Clydesdales including some of Susie & Cate’s beautiful horses at Silverstream Clydesdales). Erewhon Station not only runs a breeding programme for Clydesdale horses, but they work the station with horses rather than motorised tractors or quad bikes.

By now it was 1.30pm but the grasses, leaves and stones by the stream that we crossed were still covered in heavy frost in the shade, even though the sun was shining close by.

We turned back here and had a wee picnic by the roadside underneath the old power poles which proved to be ideal perches for the NZ falcon or kārearea. Then we headed back to the Lakes via Mt Potts to check out the NZMCA Pop there - and also their fabulous rams with the curliest horns and ginormous testicles!!! Driving back to Lake Camp felt like a whole new experience as this time we could actually see our gorgeous surroundings that had been shrouded in cloud in the morning.

Back in camp we chatted with George, Hilary & Tarn the goat, then Louis hopped on his bike to explore Lake Clearwater.

I had a lovely long chat with these guys while he was off cycling - George and Hilary used to manage the school camps on Mototapu Island, in Auckland - both of our girls went to camp there with Blockhouse Bay Intermediate! Tarn the goat was not keen to smile for the photo!

It was getting very cold by now, so I enjoyed a cup of tea, whilst clutching a hot water bottle and watched the light change over Lake Camp as the days grow shorter and shorter.

Another stunning sunset over the mountains to the West and we settled in as temperatures plummeted even further - dinner in Banjo then a spot of blogging and downloading all the day’s photos to start the epic cull for this report… over 300 to work through - oops! 😬