Trollshaw Forest

One funny thing that kept happening while we traveled in New Zealand is that a local would ask something like, “What places have you seen?” and I would stutter to answer, because within our Lord of the Rings fan group, we referred to places by their names in the lore, and sometimes not at all by their real names. Trollshaw Forest is one of these, and I was unable to tell people exactly where we had been because it’s not very precise.

In the book by J.R.R. Tokien, Trollshaw Forest is located in Eriador, near Rivendell. In the movies, this location was filmed on the North Island, 20 minutes west of Piopio, on Mangaotaki Road. Scenes from the Hobbit movies and also from the TV series Rings of Power were also filmed there. We left the fascinating geothermal town of Rotorua that I last posted about, and rode the bus West. In Piopio we stopped at the public toilets (this was a common theme for our long days of bus travel), then walked over to the Fat Pigeon Cafe, where our pre-ordered lunches were waiting for us in brown bags. It added to the authenticity in my mind that some places we visited were truly out of the way, and we had to have takeaway lunches because there were no facilities at which to eat.

We had excellent weather for much of the trip. On this day it rained and was cloudy. A few of us commented that the weather actually added to the ambiance of the scenes. We found the ragged shreds of grey clouds and mist and drizzle were just right, and when an occasional sunbeam pressed its fingers into the forest, it was especially exciting and dynamic. The weather, combined with lens malfunction, caused many of my photos to turn out poorly. I apologize for that, but I’m guessing you won’t even notice because the scenery was stunning. I’ll use some of Pedro’s iphone photos in this post.

Visitors to the location on Mangaotaki Road will find a gorgeous farm and enthusiastically welcoming hosts, who own the place and are super excited that their home is chosen so often as a film location.

Ok, see how I’m dresssed in the photo above. I had committed to wearing costumes nearly every single day of this trip, but I was suffering this day. It was day three of the horrendous sunburn, and I did not have the energy to dress in a costume. That morning in the mirror I had noticed my forehead was fat and swollen with fluids, probably my body’s attempt to fight the burn. Within an hour after getting up, all the fluids had drained into my eyes. I had a giant lump over my nose that made me look like Na’vi, from the movie Avatar. Pedro said I looked like a cat, “It’s pretty cool,” he admitted. Gosh, I love that man. In all transparency, it was not pretty cool – it was horrible.

I wore the only hat I had been able to find to purchase up to that point, which is a silly hat and I’ll never wear it anywhere again, but I was hiding. I kept my sunglasses on all day, though it was raining and dark.

Our group split into two bunches, and armed with rain coats and umbrellas (except for those of us from the Pacific Northwest who kept remarking, “Gosh, this is just like home!”), we began walking through the magical Trollshaws.

The first place we stopped was the abandoned farm where the Dwarves and Bilbo camp in the first Hobbit movie, An Unexpected Journey. There, you may remember, three trolls steal two of their ponies, then they all get captured while trying to steal them back. At the last moment the trolls are turned to stone by the sun, with a little help from Gandalf, and they are saved. {Note for purists: yes, some of us on the bus were purists, and yes, we all acknowledge that the movies don’t follow the books exactly. For the purposes of enjoying the journey, we all chose to enjoy the movie scenes and kept any bickering about Tolkien integrity to a mininum.}

For this, and several other movie locations, the owners of the property were informed that all set pieces were the property of the production company, and no bit was allowed to stay afterward. Indeed, the ruins of the farm are not here as it is shown in the movie. However, in all sites, there were tiny bits of movie history that were found after every had gone home, or generously “misplaced” by the cleanup crew, to the vast delight of the locals. An example is the fencepost above.

I don’t recall this spot being drawn to our attention, but for fun, last night Pedro and I began watching An Unexpected Journey, to remember the places we saw. There is a scene where the Dwarves are walking near Trollshaw forest and both Pedro and I pointed at the screen – “We were THERE!” It was those giant rocks in the photo above.

And then we made our way away from the cliffs and downhill toward the forest. Suzie explained to us that much of what we saw was remnants of an ancient inland sea, with shell fossils and seafloor formations.

In the photo above, notice the gigantic overhanging rock to the left. This rock formed the entrance to what was deemed the troll cave. In reality, there is only a sheltered cubby, but in the movie, a computer generated interior allows the dwarves, Bilbo, and Gandalf to walk inside and discover the swords Glamdring, Orcrist, and Sting.

Our guide, Julie, took the photo. I snuck to the back with my hat and my sunglasses, and thought I’d get away with it. Julie called out, “Crystal, get those glasses off, I can’t see your face!” And so, the glasses came off, and the photo was taken, and the glasses popped right back on. After we returned to the bus, I had a chance to see Julie alone. I said, “Ok, here is what is going on with the glasses,” and I pulled them off so she could see my face. I told her I felt fine, just embarrassed, and I promised to let her know if my condition got worse.

Item #2 that remains from the original film set is also here. At the right toe of Kevin, a fellow traveler, there is a yellow canvas X bolted to the ground. Suzie explained that this spot marks where actor Martin Freeman had to stand. She holds a photo with Mr. Freeman and his Hobbit feet on either side of that yellow tag. It was missed, she said, because there was a lot of fallen debris and leaves and twigs, and the cleanup crew simply did not see it, or they would have taken it. She was thrilled to find it had been left behind, and fixed it permanently. “That marker isn’t going anywhere,” she joked.

And it was about right then that I realized one of the absolute best things about this tour: our tour guides, the ones from Red Carpet, but also all the others, like Suzie, and our fellow travelers, all felt comfortable launching into nerdy stories about behind the scenes incidents. We heard so many stories! I’ll never be able to recall even half of the great stories about actors escapades, pranks, stunt man feats, hilarious prop malfunctions, fans getting access, props left behind, special props made for extras, kids who got to hang out with the actors, actors who frequented the local pubs, etc. What I loved was that they assumed we wanted to hear these tales. They assumed we were just as excited and eager as they were, and even if we had heard it somewhere else, we would want to hear it again. And they were right. I can’t explain how fun it was to be in a whole group of people who were just as nerdy as me about the same exact nerdy subjects that interested me. ❤

We enjoyed Trollshaw Forest immensely. Though the rain never stopped, it was rather warm, and Pedro wore a T-shirt and I was in shorts, and both of us felt comfortable, though damp. We took so many photos of the forest, marveling at the ferns growing from tree branches, and moss dripping on all sides. The place felt magical.

We backtracked quite a distance on our way out of there, ending up just south of Rotorua on another lake and town called Taupo. I’ll show it to you in my next post.

Bird count: 3 new birds for a total of 13 New Zealand birds.