Methven

So Methven is really a ski resort during the winter (or the closest town to the ski runs anyway - unlike Europe, the resorts aren't actually on the slopes, but quite a few kilometres away). For the rest of the year I think it's a pretty quite town, albeit a nice one I thought.

The following morning we did a jet boat ride on the nearby Rakaia river - we just pulled up alongside the river, and 10 minutes later we were screaming up the river and doing the obligatory 360 degree spins. It was all quite impressive, but not exactly the careening through incredibly narrow canyons that you see on TV (although it was a lovely gorge), so I'm still waiting for the scary super-narrow canyon experience.

After the jet boating we made our way towards our first 'Lord of the Rings' film location - Edoras. Even though Sarah is really the big 'Lord of the Rings' fan, as soon as we rounded the approaching corner I instantly recognised the location from the movie. The real name of the location is Mount Sunday, and it was amazingly quite traffic-wise. So, as it was getting a little bit late in the day we just decided to drive further into the valley itself and just park up for the night (right opposite the actual hill on which Edoras was built in the movie).

I could cook dinner (bangers and mash), very easily from the van and it was brilliant to have the freedom of having the whole wide open valley practically all to ourselves (I think we saw two other cars over that whole afternoon, evening and next morning). It was a tad worrying being out so far from anywhere (Sarah thinking up weirdo axe murders and the like), but of course everything was fine. It was mad windy throughout the night though (just like in the movie actually!), with the van shaking about a fair bit, but we were well cozy in the van - reminding me of times past, camping in storms and the like (which I'm sure Tony Dempsey remembers from Holland too).

The next morning after a lovely, leisurely, 'valley-all-to-ourselves' breakfast we heading off towards the town of Geraldine.