Visiting Rohan & Standing on Edoras...check.

When we finalized our year in New Zealand, the only place from Lord of the Rings that I wanted to see or would die was Edoras.  Rohan was predominantly featured in the second movie, The Two Towers, and is one of the realms of Middle Earth.  Rohan's capital was the hill fort of Edoras.  Here are a few pictures from the movies to jog your memory or show you what we were in store for.

 

Pretty spectacular, huh?  Now while I can't find it in print, our tour guide told us that Tolkien described Edoras as a rocky outcrop, surrounded by snow covered mountains, with a river running by the base.  Peter Jackson apparently told his location scouts to not bother searching for Edoras, because it didn't exist.  He figured they would do it with special effects.  But then the scouts found Mount Sunday.  Click here to read more about the location and how it turned into Edoras - 9 months of building for about 8 days of filming.

The reason I wanted to go was because the views were amazing...so enough with my blabbering.  Let's just get to the pictures.

There it is! Edoras from a few kms away.

Edoras (Mount Sunday) amongst the mountains

Getting closer

Like much of NZ, it's a working farm, so we had company on the tour.

Standing atop Edoras

View from where the steps of the Golden Hall would have been

Riders of Rohirrim flag - we totally got into the props despite the cheese factor.

 

 

Goodbye, Edoras.  You were awesome.

Here is a 360 degree view from Edoras aka Mount Sunday.

Here's a bit of the 4 wheeling we had to do to cross the river. It's hard to get to Edoras!

Thank you, Hassle-free tours!  (Check out the license plate.)

If you come to the New Zealand and want to see some amazing scenery, whether you are a fan of Lord of the Rings or not, think about taking the tour.  It's well worth it.