Home » New Zealand » Rockin' in the Rain With the Ring November 23, 2004

This morning we awoke in Queenstown to a particularly rocky event. In fact, it was a 7.2 earthquake! The epicenter was 140 miles south of New Zealand's South Island (in the Southern Ocean), so from Queenstown, it felt more like a 5.0.

Rockin' in the Rain With the Ring November 23, 2004

Ttrealtravels
2005-12-26 15:30:36

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This morning we awoke in Queenstown to a particularly rocky event. In fact, it was a 7.2 earthquake! The epicenter was 140 miles south of New Zealand's South Island (in the Southern Ocean), so from Queenstown, it felt more like a 5.0.

But the quake barely registered in the news because there was no damage and no injuries. Interesting that a similar earthquake struck here in August, but due to the type of movement, it actually caused some damage. Locals said that one was a sharp jolt. Today's lasted about 30 seconds but was much more gentle and rolling, comparatively. Still, an interesting taste of New Zealand's seismic activity, and jumping up out of bed to go stand in the doorway in my underwear was, well, a unique way to wake up!

Otherwise, today's weather was miserable. We braved the outdoors though and went into Arrowtown, a nearby Gold Rush-era town. It reminded me a lot of Gold Rush towns in Sonora, California. We also found some nice cafes, of which we had a light lunch in one.

We poked into the Lakes District Museum in Arrowtown and learned all about the area's gold rush -- strikingly similar to California's, though it started a smidge later (1860s). Neat artifacts, plus recreations of a mine, smithy, and bar.

And yes, we went to another Lord of the Rings movie site. This was the place in Fellowship of the Ring where Arwen dramatically carried a sick and dying Frodo on horseback, while being chased by the evil Black Riders. Then she crosses the Ford of Bruinen and used her Elven powers to cause a flood and wash the Riders away.

It was pretty neat. A little challenging of a walk considering the river itself -- mostly, how to cross it? On the town side, there were no signs, but we finally found a small footbridge, and the path was quite muddy.

Like Arwen, we forded the Bruinen River. This is not too much of an exaggeration as we had to wander around quite a while to figure out a way across the river to the spot where Arwen says, "If you want him, come and claim him!"

The rather vague Ian Brodie Lord of the Rings Location Guidebook says to park behind town and wade 200m up the river -- "it only gets ankle deep." As if! We were there in spring, thus rivers were all at their peaks. Also, it was raining pretty hard, so the small streamy bits were getting bigger by the minute.

Little known to Brodie, you can walk from the car park down the road, past the tiny mini-golf area and just past the restored 1863 police camp cabin-like-building, and you'll find a wood footbridge over a fork of the river. Follow the path from this bride through some bushes, and you come out to a Arrow River Macetown Trail marked by the NZ Department of Conservation.

The sign even had a photo from Fellowship of the Ring and an explanation that this spot was used for filming the Ford of Bruinen scene! To be fair to Brodie's book, a local shopkeeper said the photo was recently added. But the bridge and trailhead have been there for years.

Once we found it, the place was lovely, and we could totally see where the scenes were filmed. The river area was beautiful, even in the rain and after trekking through mud. New Zealand is filled with gorgeous little spots everywhere, wonderfully natural and scenic, quite untouched.