Day 9 – Christchurch, New Zealand, Feb 24, 2018
We docked in Lyttelton, approximately 8 miles from downtown
Christchurch. Christchurch is known as a “garden city” and has a population of
about 382,000. The 2011 earthquakes
caused significant damage and loss of life (183 people died).
They are still rebuilding the city.
Interesting that when they polled the citizens, they overwhelmingly
wanted more open space in their downtown area, to help the people feel like
there are open safe places to escape to in case of future earthquakes. They also voted that there should not be
building taller than 7 stories as so many buildings had been so severely
damaged and come down in the earthquake.
There are several taller buildings that survived, but these restrictions
are now in place.
“Edoras” from Lord of the Rings (LOTR) was our destination
today (it was an important part of the Two Towers movie). It was filmed on Mount Sunday - a small (compared to the surrounding area, but huge when you get up close to it) rocky outcropping in the middle of an absolutely beautiful valley. Bob is a LOTR fan, and Julie
loved the scenery in the movie. It was a
long day as Edoras was quite far away from Christchurch (ultimately we drove about 400 km in the bus today). We had a wonderful tour guide who provided
terrific commentary, and film clips from the making of the LOTR movies. Edoras, is part of the Southern Alps, and is
absolutely stunning. They spent 8 months
building the LOTR movie set in this remote location, for 3 weeks of filming. They then deconstructed the movie set because
it would be too far away from anything to maintain it.
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There are a LOT of sheep in New Zealand - around 30 Million. Their population has been declining due the reduced demand for wool and increased used of synthetic materials in clothing. |
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Panorama of the valley. Mount Sunday is in the middle and very small from this vantage point. |
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Mount Sunday - Edoras! |
The tour included various props that we could use to "enhance" our experience of being in this great place.
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The axe weighed a TON! |
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The flag of the Rohirrim. |
Here are some shots that show the scenes from the movie.
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The set on top with the crew buildings and parking below. |
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The thatched roofs were made from native plants around the area. |
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The buildings on the hillside were all added in later using CGI. |
After leaving Edoras, we stopped by Clearwater lake.
Lunch was in a War Memorial Building in a village about 45
minutes from Edoras. They told us that about 1/3 of the New Zealanders that went to fight in WWI were killed. So, there are many of these memorials across the country. After lunch, we headed back to the
ship.
It was a full day, leaving the ship about 8:30 am and
returning about 4:30 pm. We missed the
live “Cities of the North of New Zealand” lecture, but were able to watch it in
our room on demand.
Dinner was in another specialty restaurant, Umi Uma. This is a Chef Nobu Matsuhisa restaurant
serving fabulous Japanese cuisine. He
also has many land-based restaurants. We
started the meal with some sushi. Julie
had an appetizer of Lobster Tacos, a Scallop Salad, and Nobu Style Lobster with
Truffle-Yuzu Sauce.
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We both loved Julie's lobster tacos. We will be ordering them again. |
Bob had an appetizer of Vegetable Tempura, Warm Mushroom Salad and Wagyu Beef Rib Eye Steak with Anticucho, Teriyaki and Wasabi Pepper Sauce.
The show tonight was a crossover tenor, Jonathan
Hawkins. We missed the early show and decided
to go to the movie instead. We saw “Hell
or High Water” – a bank heist movie with the robbers stealing in order to save
their family’s ranch in West Texas.
We walked 3.41 miles, 8,201 steps and 24 flights of stairs
(too much time sitting on the bus LOL)
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