I forgot Arwen's Flight to the Ford !

These were at Tarras where the mega chase took place & then at the location for the Ford of Bruinen wherre Arwen brought the river down on the Nazgul.

The next 2 are from North Island & were where the scenes down the Anduin in the Elven boats were filmed on the Rangitekei River

These 2 were from near Queenstown on South Island - not far from the Ford of Bruinen location at Arrowton

This is the Kawarau River

No time to do Lothlorien - I need to find the photos 1st & I only have 2 min left. Must get myself a laptop & make life simpler :-)

OAO

Lessons in swordsmanship & Crebain

OK
This was the helicopter location
There's almost a face on that one in the middle.
Intend to watch the DVD & see if I can spot it!














This may have been the flat bit where Merry & Pippin were having their lesson. Shall have to check the DVD to be sure, but it was the only flat bit big enough for the scene

More craggy, weird rocks

Maybe a rock to hide under?

The view down the valley where Legolas 1st saw the 'cloud'

See prev blogs for pics of the flight

Loth lorien & Anduin next.

OAO

LOR stuff - Hobbiton to Bree, Weathertop & Rivendell

I had planned to carry on with what happened at Kuching & the Longhouse, but due to leaving my SD cards by the telly, I have no photos to illustrate, so here's some stuff IRO my LOR location adventure.




No 1 is a statue of Frodo taken at the Weta Cave.










No 2 is a still of me as Frodo - with pipe & a bloke (I'd need to look at the blog for that day to get his name!) as Sam. It is the exact tree used, & as I said at the time, I'd never have found it without Ted. There's also a vid of it which Ted took.






This one is the actual POV from the film. Ted showed us the scene on his laptop, & if you pause yours, you'll see the 2 broken, pointy branches on the top left & the other trees in the shot












This is me hanging over the 'Shortcut to Mushrooms' drop


All these were taken at Mt Victoria at Wellington while I was on the LOR tour with Ted - I've not got round to looking for easter egss yet, though

Ted got us all to pose in the exact positions, & was complete with broken carrot & poo props!
He even gave me a leaf to put in my mouth!

This is Ted standing more or less in front of the "Mushrooms" line

& this is the drop where they built the tree for the Hobbits to hide from the Nazgul. The POV of the Nazgul is the next. If you look behind the horse, you can see these trees in the background

There's a road at the top of the hill & we got out of the minibus & walked down. I turned round & immediately recognised the shot & took a photo. I've no idea how it happened, but the camera made it look like it was back lit by moonlight, just like the film - weird, but cool.

After we'd done the other shots, we came back & Ted turned 3 people into a Nazgul on his horse - clever!

After Aragorn had got them all organised at Bree, they set off for Rivendell via Weathertop. This is a photo of hobbits & Bill from Weta Cave.
Gandalf hadn't shown up at Bree, but he'd been imprisoned at Orthanc.

This photo, taken at Harcourt Park shows

the path where
Gandalf rode up to Orthanc. If you look closely, you can still see where the took up the grass to make the path - it's a darker green line, just to the R of the tree in the middle. And it took me ages to find it!

Meanwhile the Nazgul were attacking at Weathertop. This is the POV when Frodo looked down & saw them approaching. It's also the POV from Dunharrow when Aragorn & Eomer were looking down at the muster below.





This is all that's left of Rivendell, apart from the

platform used when Legolas tested his bow - used in some promo shots.

This is a model of Gimli from the Weta Cave

So now the Fellowship is formed & they're all off to Lothhlorien via the Misty Mountains.

Watch this space for photos of their journey

OAO

Noos from the zoo

Going back a bit now, but have a bit more to say about my fortnight at Zoo Negara.

Whilst there I was called Sharely by my southern fellow volunteers.

They were quite bemused when I commented it would be strange to be called Shirley again! ;-P

One evening at dinner, Organising Emma even told us how our bras should be fitted ! I felt sorry for Jon, sitting at the dinner table whilst his girlfriend discussed underwear with women he barely knew. ?

Organising Emma was like that, though. She frequently slagged him off for some infringement or other in front of us, & generally treated him like a little boy who needed watching closely.

I was also told, having asked what her bikini was like before we went to Langkawi,

"I don't have a bikini, I have underwear"

Maybe I'm being a bit harsh, but what a tosser!

It was amusing to watch her suddenly become all loving, & drape herself around his shoulders when he spent too long talking to one of us 'other women'. Even though Penny & I were old enough to be his Mum!

Jon & Emma were volunteering at the zoo for a month (Organising Emma wants to be a Vet when she grows up), & after the 1st few days at the Ape Centre, they worked in other areas of the zoo, including with the vet. I was quite jealous of that. It must have been fascinating.

That meant my days were spent with Penny & Surly Steph, who had a bit of a regime together for cage cleaning. I had to be quick or all the decent brushes would be gone!

I didn't mind cleaning cages on my own, though. It meant I got to spend more time with Maz & Denice, who'd come in & help, & at least if I got covered in diluted Orang poo, it was my own fault!

My favourite Orang was Chokey, an adolescent male who'll not be able to go out into the main enclosure unless his Dad dies & he becomes the dominant male. Either that, or he's sent to another zoo.

He's a right character with a wonderful ginger beard (very Scottish hahaha). I was able to give him the 'enrichment' toys I'd made, ie the food pockets & the goodie box. I got some decent photos of him being enriched as he figured out how to get at the fruit & nuts inside. Here is a photo of him with an ice lolly I made.

I filled a small plastic bag with water & blackcurrant cordial & froze it. Once solid I removed the bag & gave the lolly to Chokey. He seemed quite pleased, but with those soulful eyes, it's very difficult to tell whether they're smiling or sad.

I'll post a full blog about Chokey another time, as I've LOADS of pics of him & my time at the Library today is ticking away!

Here's a few more zoo photos, but I'll do a full one of that too, as there's loads.

This is the second one I took on our 1st day when we were shown round.

I call it Tweedledum & Tweedledee.

See what I mean about soulful eyes?

The 2nd is the Copybara family - Mum plus 4 kids of very different sizes.

Theirs was the 1st cage I cleaned & I got some good vid, too.

They were really cute - for the largest rodent on the planet! & I fed them by hand, which was really cool as a 1st zoo experience.

Next is one of the Slow Loris I mentioned.

Such an adorable little thing, but they have the most poisonous bite in the mammal kingdom apparently.

Maybe someone with easier access to google could check this out, as we were told some incorrect stuff by some of the keepers, so it may not be true.

About to get booted out so

OAO for today