Our First Vanniversary - in LotR Country

Friday 12 December

After the stormy weather, a golden dawn over the Dunstan Range - turning into a generally sunny day over us, but glowering storm clouds coming over the range a couple of hours later.

Louis & Jonny did some recording and I caught up with some laundry (peg it out on the line, dries in less than an hour!)

Elevenish, we set out on a Lord of The Rings adventure to Rohan - aka Poolburn Reservoir. A stunning, if bumpy, drive across schist studded hills, avoiding puddles, potholes & rocks on the gravel road. Paused at Moa Creek to see the old truck and the bus stop - seems like the golden age of Lord of the Rings location tours seems to be over… only the die hards and the curious come through here now… and the fishermen.

We rumbled and bumped up the Old Dunstan Road, through fabulous landscapes as we headed to the reservoir - kinda reminded me of childhood holidays on Dartmoor. We crested a hill and the Poolburn Reservoir, aka Rohan from LotR, The Two Towers, sprawled out in front of us. The movie shot is interwoven with the actual location below - many of the fishermen huts around the reservoir were dressed by the movie people to look all Tolkienesque!

Stunning vista, the lake deep blue against a green & gold landscape with rocky schist tors dotting the slopes and hills all around. One fisherman hut was built into a schist tor - and had red reflectors screwed into the rocks on the narrow drive down to the lake!

The schist down at the lakeside was shiny and slivered into shingles that could easily be pried apart. We moved a few pieces and dislodged a couple of skinks including the very pregnant female in the triptych above.

Coming back through the Ida Valley, we drove along Webster Lane (making Jonny Webster pose for a photo of course), past a couple of historic stone huts and houses, then stopped in Omakau for bacon butties at the Muddy Creek Cafe before heading home.

Had a chilled afternoon and celebrated our first “vanniversary” on the road - a whole year of Banjo's Odyssey - with Jonny & Debs and a bottle of No.1 methode traditionelle bubbles from Blenheim! What a year it has been! I even found lilac bunting to decorate Banjo so that it looks like our Banjo's Odyssey logo! TBF we did spend a about a month out of Banjo on various sojourns up north - Esther & Reb's wedding at Easter in Tauranga, Louis' back surgery recovery in Quay West and Helen's surgery when we stayed with the Fernandi... but it still feels like a landmark occasion.

Jonny cooked us an amazing lasagne and we watched the sun turn the landscape golden around us. But somehow it feels wrong celebrating our first anniversary whilst staying in a lovely house!!

PS- credit to Nickie F for the portmanteau “vanniversary” - love that!