Larnach and Edoras

2015-03-18

Wednesday, we closed up shop in Dunedin.  We hopped back over to Speight's to fill our water jugs before leaving.

You gotta lean on the button

Dunedin harbor

Before we left town, we took a side trip to Larnach "castle".  It's a large house (but a small castle) and was a weekend home for a Dunedin banker.  As his life was drawing to a close, his messy divorces caught up with him and the house was left to fall into ruin. Eventually, a couple discovered the remains and made it their life's work to rehabilitate the place.

Cold and windy at Larnach Castle

The ceiling decorations are amazing

The front lawn

No closets, but really large wardrobes

Dunedin harbor from the top of Larnach

Central stairs

Jack has had enough

Front stoop

A wide shot of the front elevation

We went back into Dunedin for lunch before hitting the road to Christchurch.  On the way, we stopped to see the Morekai Boulders, hoping for something close to Pancake Rocks on the west coast.  Alas, we got to the boulders at high tide and didn't see much.  It was fun/challenging to try and get over to them while trying to keep our feet dry.

Playing around on the boulders

Maybe I can roll this into the surf

As we drove up the coast to Christchurch (Chch for short), I began plotting a side trip to a Lord of the Rings site that I'd been wanting to see.  The scenes of Edoras were shot in Cantebury on a remote sheep station southwest of Christchurch.  There is a little hill in the middle of a valley called Mt Sunday and the crew built some buildings to represent the hall of King Theoden.  I was a little hesitant to go because it meant a three hour detour, but Laura talked me into it, and I'm glad she did.  It is a spectacular valley and the short walk to and up Mt Sunday was worth the effort.

Metaled road to Edoras

The path to Mt Sunday

The hill in the foreground is Mt Sunday/Edoras

Before the bridge, you had to roll up your pants

For my fisherman friends

At the foot of Edoras

The mark of Rohan

By the way, there's a reason the flags were constantly blowing in the movie.  It's quite windy on top of the little hill.  Nothing remains of the set, but there is a nice walkway with several bridges across streams and a metal marker has been placed on top of Mt Sunday.  I'm really glad we took the detour and I only wish we'd had some sort of banner to trail into the wind for photos.  An Alabama flag or a DealNews banner would have been fun.

On the summit

Looking across the plains of Rohan

A pano of the valley

Beautiful, but windy

Skipping down the hill

Difficult to overstate the beauty

Back to the car

We finished the trip into Christchurch after dark after grabbing Jack a pizza at a hole-in-the-wall pub.  Our lodging in Christchurch was the cheapest and nicest place we stayed the entire trip.