Back in the Saddle

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  Glenorchy, New Zealand
Saturday, October 6, 2007

It rained the first few days that I was in Queenstown, which suited me perfectly because it meant that I had a cast iron excuse to do nothing, which after the activity filled week on the Stray Bus was actually quite a relief. Today however, I was going to be active again, I was going riding.

It has been at least five years since I have even sat on a horse, let alone done a day ride on one, but I would be doing an equivalent to that today. I would be riding out of Glenorchy town, about fortyfive minutes drive from Queenstown, and visiting some spectacular scenery during the day, as well as some of the locations from the Lord of the Rings trilogy. My riding was seperated into two seperate trips, a morning hack along the Dart river, which was suited to more experienced riders, followed by a gentle scenic trek through the Paradise estate to visit the locations from the films. I was riding with Dart Stables, who are the only operators in the area allowed onto Paradise as they are a part of the consortium which manages the estate Trust.

We stopped en route to Glenorchy to take in the magnificent views across lake Wakatipu into the Glen, nestled between snow capped mountains, and bathed in sunshine. I remarked that it was reminiscent of the Highlands of Scotland, and our driver replied that it was if the Highlands were on steroids. I had to agree with him for that.

The most important thing however, was that it looked like it would be a good day for riding, for which I was glad, as I had put back my trip to the deep south in order to take advantage of the forecast good weather. We arrived at the stables on time, checked in and were led out into the paddock to be paired up with a horse. I was given Trevor, who was the baby of the group at only four years old, and was quite clearly a bundle of energy, with his head up and his ears twitching constantly. I liked him immediately, he was alert and responsive, though he was not particularly keen on standing still! We set off to the Dart basin and were there very quickly, soon fording swollen streams to make our way over to the main river, where we would be crossing to the far bank. This was not so easy as the river was swollen with a week's worth of rain, and Ellie, our guide, had to check several crossing points while we waited on the banks to see if we could ford the river. While she was doing this we were joined by an unexpected guest; a stray horse who had managed to escape his paddock came charging across the stream to join us, dressed in a rather fine blue rug and neck cover. Our horses were not impressed, and the rug made Trevor quite skittish, as the new boy looked wrong and was not someone that he knew.

Meanwhile, Ellie decided that she did not want us to cross the river at this point, so we turned back in order to take an alternate track up the river. Unfortunately, our gatecrasher (possibly literally) decided that he would tag along. Trevor was not pleased by this at all and his ears went from alert to laid back in anger. I was not happy about it either, as I had not been in the saddle for so long, and was worried about Trevor hurting himself if he bolted and I could not control it. Consequently I spent the next twenty five minutes talking to Trevor as we rode to try and keep him calm, and to calm myself as well, all the time trying to keep space between us and the intruder who was happily wandering up and down the line, butting into it a points and munching grass on the side at other times. We could not shake him at all, despite Ellie trying to drive him away and one of the horses getting fed up and kicking out at him. We even tried to decieve him into thinking that he was in a paddock when he wandered behind a half fence, riding away in the direction of the fencing so he would remain trapped behind it. it didn't work, he realised what was happening and just jumped over the fence once he realised we intended to leave him behind. I am pretty convinced that his name must have been Houdini, or at least it should have been. The only brightside was that Trevor had gotten used to his strange dress and was more calm around him now, not prancing and threatening to bolt, which made me more calm, so we both settled down and relaxed a little.

We came to the next crossing point and bumped into another ride, from a different stables in the area. They recognised our Houdini and after about five minutes he was caught and tied with two lead reins to be taken back home. He was no longer a part of our group. This made the horses, and us, relax, as the we all, the horses included, had been getting fed up, as his presence had been curtailing our ride.

Once he was gone, Ellie dismounted and took some photographs for us, and then we went looking for another place in which we could ford the river. We managed to find a crossing and while the other horses dawdled on the bank, Trevor, much to my amusement, plunged straight in without any hesitation, presumably pleased to be able to get on with his day out, and once the youngster had jumped in the others followed suit. Once we had crossed we wound our way back along the other bank, which actually formed a spear between the Rees and Dart rivers, and when I commented that the scenery felt very familiar, Ellie said that it was because this area was used to film the scene in which Sam and Frodo see the elephants marching toward Minas Tirith in the Two Towers. It was very easy to imagine the scene. We had a short canter in this section, during which I realised how much I had forgotten about riding - although I kept my hands steady and remained seated, I also managed to let my feet slip forward in the stirrups and this made the last part of the canter uncomfortable for both Trevor and myself.

Still, after five years, I was not too bad and it was glorious weather to be out in, riding through rivers, over teacks in marshes and surrounded the whole time by sundrenched snow-capped mountains. It was over far too quickly, not least because I would not have Trevor this afternoon, which I was disappointed with as he is the best horse I have ever ridden, and will be etched in my memory along with Tonto (New England), Echo (Tain, Scotland) and Dougal (Scotland). Out of these four though, it would be Trevor that I would take home if I had the opportunity. Mum however, said that I was not allowed when I called and asked what the reaction would be if I got off the plane at heathrow with a horse in tow. Not that proposition was in any way feasible, I just wondered what she would say. Apparently I would come very close to being disowned. Nice to know I'm loved - close, but not actually disowned...

I wonder if it is worth the risk?

We had a good break between our first and second ride, and I was glad of it as I was both hungry and reasonably saddlesore from the morning ride. I had forgotten how active you actually are when you go riding, for all that you look as though you are just sitting on a horse.

For the afternoon ride we drove out to the Paradise estate for the The Ride of the Rings, which is, as it sounds, a scenic ride looking over the local sites at which various parts of Lord of the Rings were filmed. Among other scenes, we would be looking out over Isengard this afternoon, but first we had to get our horses. I was given Harry, who was much more laid back than Trevor had been, but not as charismatic. There were a lot of non-riders on this trek so it was much slower than our morning ride, but as we were here to view the scenery rather than gallop that was not a problem.

We wound out of the Paddock and up to the first location, which looked nothing like it had during the film. Galadriel's Pool, is in reality, a muddy, boggy pond surrounded by masses of leaf litter and decaying logs. Hardly reminiscent of the serene glade in the film. It transpires that the LOTR crew removed masses of debris from the area, carefully documenting where it had been, and kept it in storage while they transported in massive amounts of turf, polysyrene trees and rocks in order to transfom the glade into Galadriel's haven. Once filming was finished, the team replaced everything that they had removed exactly as it had been before they had been there. This is one of the terms of the Trust that operates the Paradise estate. Nothing comes in, nothing is taken out, it is to be left wild and natural. Narnia had to abide by the same rules when they filmed scenes for Prince Caspian here. We continued up the hill to the Isengard lookout, which stands above the Dart river looking down onto the field that was used for the Isengard long shots. It looks almost exactly the same as in the film, right down to the forest marching (not literally) down the slopes of the mountains to the field. We had a few photos before turning back and heading back into the wood to our final two scenes, which was actually just one extended scene, but which is much more compact in reality than in the film.

This was Amon Hen, from the end of Fellowship, where the orcs chase Frodo and kill Boromir. The funny thing, is that during shooting, the orcs could not see, so in the first few takes, the orcs running down the hill look petrified - it took a while for them to get used to the run, which they then had to do numerous times, because instead of 100 uruk-hai orcs, there were only about 15, who were recycled by running up behind the camera after they had run down to give the impression of a continuous stream. We also rode right past the place where Boromir was shot, and apparently, the reason that Sean Bean recoils so realistically in the film is because Peter jackson actually pumped three arrows into him. Bening an artistic man, he decided that he wanted the death scene to look as real as possible, and the only way to get the arrow recoil was to actually shoot Bean. The archery master declared it too dangerous and refused to shoot a Hollywood star, so Peter Jackson took some archery lesson until he was good enough to aim well, and on the day, Sean Bean was shot repeatedly by a shory, chubby Kiwi. Brave man, even if he was too afraid to get in a helicopter to do the mountain scenes.

There was also a client who did this ride and when they got to this point began crying when he realised that it was where Boromir had been shot, but beyond that, he then took out some specially made telescopic arrows, afixed them to his jacket and had his girlfriend take photos while he did a reinactment of the scene. That would have been worth seeing.

As we headed back into the paddock the more experienced riders were given the opportunity to do a short series of canters, so off we went, and I was pleased to find that it started coming back to me and I was able to sit steady and roll with Harry's gait all the way through. It was a good end tothe day, and harry was a lovely horse, but it is definately Trevor that I will remember.

Do you think I could sneak a horse through customs?