Volcanic activity at Mount Ruapehu is increasing and an eruption could occur at any time, scientists warned on Tuesday. The volcano, famed as a location in The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, last erupted on September 25 2007, spitting two metre boulders distances of up to two kilometres. Ruapehu’s elevated alert level has not been changed, but scientists said on Tuesday that activity within the mountain was greater, with high levels of gas spewing out, a warmer than average crater lake and ongoing volcanic tremors. “The volcano remains in a status of unrest and the possibility of further activity remains. If further eruptions occur, they may occur without warning,” Geological and Nuclear Sciences (GNS) said in a statement.
Steve writes: This may or may not be of interest to you. Currently there is a resource consent application for two massive dwellings up at the Poolburn Dam – Central Otago, site of some scenes from Rohan. Locals are very unhappy about this because the developments are completely out of character with the surrounds and the developer is intending to fence off and restrict access to this part of the Dam which to this point has been open to all public. There have been articles about this in the Otago Daily Times and details of the consent application can be found here (reference RCO80072). Given that the developers are from Auckland you could say that Rohan is now under attack from the Aucks.
Lynnette writes: Walking Tree Publishers’ new LotR-themed book, How We Became Middle-earth: A Collection of Essays on The Lord of the Rings, features 24 essays by Tolkien scholars from around the world. Edited by Adam Lam and Nataliya Oryschchuk (University of Canterbury, Christchurch, NZ), the book covers a wide range of topics about New Zealand’s connections with LotR.
TURNING A PHENOMENOM INTO BUSINESS SUCCESS: HOBBITON MOVIE SET AND FARM TOURS FIVE YEARS ON
This week marks the fifth anniversary of the opening of the farm gates to visitors at the Hobbiton Movie Set site.
The location, near Matamata, was Peter Jackson’s choice for the creation of the fictitious village ‘Hobbiton’ used in the filming of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy.
Today Hobbiton Movie Set and Farm Tours, run by the family who own the land, is a thriving business and has proven the skeptics wrong. During the five years over 130 000 visitors have taken the tour, with a trebling of numbers between years one and two. International visitors make up 80% of the customers, with the strongest marketing coming from the UK. Read the rest of this entry »
Ringer Spy Michelf writes: The October 6 edition of the public radio program “Travels with Rick Steves” featured New Zealand in its first half hour. The first 6 minutes include a discussion of “hobbit-spotting”–finding LOTR movie sites in NZ. Here is the link. Scroll down to the Oct. 6 “South of the Border” show and click on “Listen to entire show”.Hobbit-spotting on Travel Show
WELLINGTON, New Zealand - New Zealand’s Mount Ruapehu erupted, spewing out ash and rock that injured one climber and forced around 50 people to be evacuated off the mountain, local media reported on Wednesday. The 10-minute eruption started at about 8.20 p.m. on Tuesday and sent a cloud of ash and dust to a height of 15,000 feet, Geological and Nuclear Sciences said.
The locations section has had a major overhaul. We are looking for all you New Zealanders out there to submit photography to fit in this section. Please email calisuri@theonering.net your submissions.
Thanks to ‘Reservoir Dog’ for this weeks poll! We figured after the brain bending poll last week, we all could use something a little more laid back!
Tehanu here from the Grey Havens,
Sorry, this one is a bit ‘in-house’ for New Zealanders…or people who have been here!
I consulted with Rutherford the calculating cat, (the one who is learning to type,) and he drew a Venn diagram to show the intersection of the sets of people who surf the Net, are interested in Lord of the Rings, are interested in photography, live in or have been to NZ, and have been hiking in Fiordland or the Southern Alps. Rutherford reckons it is a pretty tiny subset, but it does exist.
So if you’re out there and you have photos of parts of New Zealand that look like you’ve always imagined Middle Earth to look, why not send them to us and have your work posted up for a bit of web fame? We’d love to be able to put up some big pictures of the area round Queenstown, Wanaka, all that lovely Central Otago stuff. Y’know, the borders of Rohan? Also for those of you that have been down to Milford and Te Anau, how about some pics of that dark mysterious forest they have down there? And Rivendell, can anyone imagine where that might be?
If anyone has a photo of Moria Gate, north of Karamea (it really exists! I’ve seen it on maps!) we’d love to see that too, just out of curiosity. Those mapmakers were Tolkien fiends too, it seems.
We’ll put your name on your pics to give you the credit for them it you want, of course.
To say Okoroire, with its hot springs, motel, shop and golf course, is a long way from Hollywood is one of the bigger understatements you could make. But courtesy of the army, the tiny Waikato settlement is now a step closer to the silver screen. An undisclosed farm property is the site of the set for director Peter Jackson’s “Lord of the Rings”. The film’s makers are increasingly coy about letting the public know where the development work is being carried out.
The hive of excavation is buried in a farm valley not visible from any road. The farm’s owner has been sworn to secrecy.Work has been going on for nearly a month, but Okoroire locals are looking forward to the actual filming, which will be a boon for the hospitality industry.
This is a great scoop picked up by none other than Tehanu herself. She tells me that she went to dinner with some friends and other people she didn’t know, the topic turned to Lord Of The Rings and after weeding out the useless people at the table, (Hey! Those are buddies of mine! -Tehanu) Tehanu found a lady with tons of great news:
I hurled myself into that conversation, and got talking to a woman, she knows tons of actors and film people, some in Wellington. We raved on and ignored everyone else for hours. SO:
1.The rumour about Sean Connery being involved is still going strong among actor circles here, she at least believes there is a strong possibility that it’s true. Gandalf?
2.VOICES: She’s heard that the Hobbits will have something like a Yorkshire country dialect; the Dwarves will be more cockney, the Men will be American (OUCH!) and the elves slightly Irish (NOT comic-leprechaun Irish, just a faint lilt.) The wizards will be very BBC English. I reckon this is worth putting in as a speculation on the website.
3.Now I’m pretty sure Fiordland is a location, will send pics soon. My friend said “White Island.” It’s as active as hell, steaming fumaroles everywhere, and it’s far enough offshore that it would be difficult for sightseers to get to. Great Mordor location.
4.We decided that we both wanted to drive down to Matamata and Hinuera to look for Hobbiton. We will do this later this month. Aerial views. That seems like a completely wild suggestion, I don’t know here well enough to know if she really means it. But we will at least drive down!!!
5.She knows somebody who was auditioning for Gimli.
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Volcanic activity at Mount Ruapehu is increasing and an eruption could occur at any time, scientists warned on Tuesday. The volcano, famed as a location in The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, last erupted on September 25 2007, spitting two metre boulders distances of up to two kilometres. Ruapehu’s elevated alert level has not been changed, but scientists said on Tuesday that activity within the mountain was greater, with high levels of gas spewing out, a warmer than average crater lake and ongoing volcanic tremors. “The volcano remains in a status of unrest and the possibility of further activity remains. If further eruptions occur, they may occur without warning,” Geological and Nuclear Sciences (GNS) said in a statement.
Lynnette writes: Walking Tree Publishers’ new LotR-themed book, How We Became Middle-earth: A Collection of Essays on The Lord of the Rings, features 24 essays by Tolkien scholars from around the world. Edited by Adam Lam and Nataliya Oryschchuk (University of Canterbury, Christchurch, NZ), the book covers a wide range of topics about New Zealand’s connections with LotR.
WELLINGTON, New Zealand - New Zealand’s Mount Ruapehu erupted, spewing out ash and rock that injured one climber and forced around 50 people to be evacuated off the mountain, local media reported on Wednesday. The 10-minute eruption started at about 8.20 p.m. on Tuesday and sent a cloud of ash and dust to a height of 15,000 feet, Geological and Nuclear Sciences said.
-Tehanu) Tehanu found a lady with tons of great news:
