I thought I would share with theonering.net my experience on the Red Carpet Movie Tour’s LOTR ultimate fantasy 12-day tour (http://www.redcarpet-tours.com). I’m on a small VIP tour of travel agents. I’ll send in updates as time and connectivity permit. This is the seventh installment.
Feb 24th
Today’s installment will be a short one again, as we spent most of the day traveling. Before we headed off for Christchurch, we went back to Jens Hansen’s shop to meet Thorkild, Jens’ son (if you missed yesterdays installment, Jens, who passed on in 1999, and Thorkild made the one ring). Thorkild talked about how he and his father made about 15 different rings for Peter and his team to chose from and it was this prototype that won. Jens, Thorkild and their jewelers ended up making about 41 different versions of the one ring in various sizes depending on what the ring was needed for. Thorkild even let us hold the one ring. How cool is that? Thorkild said that folks who would like to buy a copy of the one ring can order one from him and get it in a couple of weeks.
After we left Thorkild, we hit the road for Christchurch. We stopped at Hope’s Saddle for a view of Mt Owen, which is where they filmed the exit from Moria. Unfortunately the cloud cover was so low that we couldn’t see the distinct white rock. A bit later, we stopped at a wonderful little hot springs resort, Maruia Springs, for lunch and a soak. A few more hours and we finally made it to Christchurch.
Tomorrow – Mt. Potts (Edoras) and Pelannor Fields.
