Pelennor Fields

Outside Twizel we first visited Ian Hayman’s Tasman Downs farm, which I covered in my previous post. After that, we traveled to Ben Ohau station, the site of the largest film set for Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy movies. The reason this site had to be so large is because it was the place where all of the forces of good and all of the forces of evil came together for the final battle scene of the movies, on the plains in front of the city of Minas Tirith.

Our driver, Scotty, drove the bus out into the middle of a resplendent field, and Josh explained to us that the road was built by the movie crew in order to get all their gear and personnel out there safely. The owners of the field found the road helpful for farm management, and thus it stayed after filming was complete. That is the road we used.

We were headed for some low hills, which were the setting of the stirring and famous speech of King Theodin. The warriors of the Rohirrim believed themselves to be outnumbered and at a lethal disadvantage. They rode to battle for glory only, hoping to be remembered for fighting on the right side of history, as each one expected to die here. King Theodin’s speech is rousing because he is honest about this expected fate, and manages to inspire his entire army anyway, stoking their desire to use their own deaths to the greatest benefit, culminating in a battle cry of, “Death! Death! Death!”

I was still in my fun elf cosplay that day.

This time Pedro had a cosplay too! He wore orc armor of leather and metal, with teeth and a skull around his neck.

When Josh found out that Pedro was playing an orc, he told us he had an orc mask. Pedro quickly put it on. Josh told us later that Pedro was the first person on a tour of his that had ever come in orc costume.

As you expected, it was time for the reenactments to begin! We put on all our gear, and grabbed every last fake weapon that Josh could find, and armed ourselves for battle. Pedro and I had to be on opposite sides of course. An elf and an orc wouldn’t fight on the same side at Pelennor.

After a couple of big charges, we wandered around taking photos and doing small scenes. Everyone wanted a chance to slay Pedro the orc.

Then Pedro had to give up the mask and other people got to be the orc.

We were out there in the sun a very long time. There were flies buzzing relentlessly, the grasses were sticking myriad little burs in every bit of our clothing. Most people’s shoes were coated in burs. But it was a fun time and we couldn’t help but be mesmerized by the beauty out there.

Eventually a white pickup came down the road, and Josh said it was time to head back down there and meet Priscilla, the most adorable Orc.

Priscilla is the owner of this farm, and was like the other wonderful people we had met, in being thrilled that her place was chosen to be in the movies. Peter Jackson had searched the country for horsemen for the Pelennor Fields scene, hiring at least 150 extras on horses. Interestingly, they got as many women volunteers as they got men, and the costume department just put beards on them and hid their female bodies under masculine armor. For the other side of the battle, orcs were needed. Estimates are that 300 to 500 orcs were needed at a time, for various scenes that were filmed. Only a few of these were movie actors. The rest were extras and many of them came from Twizel. Priscilla was one of them.

At this location, sadly, she explained, the cleanup crews did an exceptional job of taking every speck of movie memorabilia away. So for years, Priscilla did not have all the goodies that the other property owners managed to get their hands on. But nine years later (!!) workers were out in the fields doing farm maintenance, and came across the best discarded movie prop of all.

Next, everyone wanted their photo with the spear.

We had spent hours in the sun, with the flies and the burs in our clothing. We were sweaty and dusty and hungry, and we all said a happy goodbye to our orc friend Priscilla and climbed onto the bus with the dust and many many trapped flies (which then buzzed around inside the bus for another day or two), and left to get something to eat. We stopped at the Wrinkly Rams in Omarama.

After delicious food and a refreshing beer, we wandered next door, where there is a lovely large gift shop filled with wool garments. Josh’s mother in law, Julie, had told us earlier in our tour about merino wool – an exceptionally warm and soft wool that I was already familiar with due to owning multiple jackets from Icebreaker. Julie also explained about the problem in New Zealand with possums, a pest species that had been introduced and then it thrived, putting native species at risk. Possum hunting is now encouraged. The common brushtail possum in New Zealand has exceptionally soft fur, and thus many companies combine their fur with merino wool for an incredibly luxurious light, soft wool. Pedro and I were both interested in purchasing some of it.

Back on the bus, we settled in for a two-hour ride south to Cromwell for the night. Before we found our hotel, however, we stopped at the Jones Family Fruit Stall, where everyone ordered New Zealand style ice cream. That is a simple ice cream base – often vanilla, but Pedro and I chose a Manuka honey flavor, called Hokey Pokey. Then you choose fresh fruit to be blended into the ice cream. I chose mango and Pedro chose strawberry.

We wandered around their beautiful gardens while we ate our ice cream.

We checked into our rooms and I undid my hair from the elf tiara I had been wearing all day. The results looked like super hero hair!!