As we headed north that morning, I was pondering over maps and guides, trying to decide what our goal should be for that day. We needed to be in Christchurch the following day, and were considering heading to the Banks Peninsula. However, Sonny mentioned he would like to drive on some dirt roads, and perhaps camp somewhere without any lights. Therefore, I decided to take a small detour instead and go check out Mount Sunday. This large rocky hill, named because it was the meeting place for the sheepherders long ago on, you guessed it, Sunday, is in the middle of a huge plain which is surrounded by the alps. It is one of the few locations used for filming the Lord of the Rings that exactly mirrors Tolkien's description. The only addition required was the buildings of Rohan's capital and castle - Edoras.
The route to the area involves driving on a semi-maintained gravel road for nearly 20 km. Sonny was very pleased, and enjoyed the drive, going as fast as he safely could. Its funny to think sometimes, how far he's come from when we first got here and driving on gravel made him so nervous, he would have me take the wheel.
Eventually we reached a lookout for the entire area. Now, in order to properly grasp the scale we are working with, you really should click on the photo below to blow it up. Mount Sunday is that tiny little blip in the flats at the foot of the mountains, just right of center. Keep that in mind as you see the later photos.
After our obligatory selfie, we continued the drive until we reached the end of the non-gated road and the parking lot for the walk to the filming sites. Surprisingly for New Zealand, there were no signs banning dogs (even though we were heading through a station) so we decided to take the fur-babies on a walk.
After winding our way over streams across the plain, we reached the base of Mount Sunday and started climbing. It wasn't terribly high, but it was semi-steep and getting warm with the sun beating down on us. By the time we reached the top, we were both a bit warm and out of breath. We giggled slightly, and talked about how we were getting out of shape with all this beer and driving, and the lack of running.
We spent a while relaxing at the summit, just trying to take in the 360 degree views. The mountains would normally all be snow-capped, but as we are at the end of an extra hot summer in New Zealand, the snow line is much higher than normal. The grass rippled in the wind like and ocean, and the streams and braided river we had crossed sparkled like veins of diamond. Perched on the rocky outcrop, surveying as far as the eye could see (which was far), I noted to myself that this would indeed make for a very secure site for a capital city. I could easily imagine the riders, flying across the grass below me.
Suddenly, I did see something moving far below. Upon further inspection, it turned out to be not Rohirrim, but a tour SUV. We sat and watched as a group disembarked and followed the same path we had. After a few more photos (Jet was being most uncooperative), we headed back toward the path to descend the mount. We ended up having to stop and wait though, as a crowd of VERY red faced, sweaty tourists toting various swords, axes, and pikes were slowly scrambling up the hill. We pulled the dogs out of the way and waited patiently. Eventually they all made it up and we all stared curiously at each other as we passed. Sonny giggled at their props, and I tried to explain why one would pay money to re-enact movie scenes. I don't think he believed me.
We made our way back to the car and Sonny got to enjoy some more gravel road. We needed to camp earlier than we had been, as I had to take beauty shots of Fawkes. The lady who had said she would buy him had backed out as she had some unexpected expenses, so we needed to advertise and try to get someone else to buy him. Therefore, I had us stay at a camping ground found in the domain of a tiny town named for the mountain looming over it - Mount Somers. It was a very cheap campsite, but had a kitchen and flushing toilets.
We rested for a bit and enjoyed a beer in the sun before I cleaned the van and took the photos we needed. Afterwards, we took a small amble around and discovered a really big tire, which got Jet very excited, and a tiny museum, including the original tramping hut which used to be located near the summit of Mount Somers, but was now a time capsule of 1960s hiking in New Zealand.
As the sun set, I marveled at the amber waves of grain, backed by purple mountains majestic, while Sonny rolled his eyes and said I was silly. We got ready for bed earlier than normal, but enjoyed the warmer temperatures than we had been experiencing. On to Christchurch in the morrow!
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