They took the hobbits to Isengard. The question was, would we find WHERE they took the hobbits to Isengard from?
Anytime I’m going off on the road, I like to take on some side quests.
This comes from years of playing games like Fallout and Zelda and can range from simple things like finding the world’s biggest ball of twine (that’s in Cawker City Kansas, also near the geographical “center” of the lower 48 states) to more off-the-beaten path stuff like the original Joshua Tree from the U2 album cover (hint: it’s NOT in Joshua Tree National Park).
It’s usually not about the actual items – I’m not much of a U2 fan and I really don’t care about twine – it’s about the challenge of finding odd things that are outside my usual comfort zone. And anyway, if your only goal is to simply get from point A to point B, that’s a really poor use of the time you are given, isn’t it?
For our New Zealand trip, Ariel and I wanted to re-create the most famous of all Lord of the Rings memes. You know of what I speak…
The trouble is, finding the precise film location(s) proved highly elusive and it appeared, shockingly, that no one had successfully recreated even a portion of the scene anywhere on the internet. After sifting through endless home recreations in random locations, as well as images from people’s trips on organized tours, it became clear that no one had managed to find the place.
This only hardened my resolved more. Now I turned to my old friends at theonering.net which I had last been to about 20 years ago. They recommended I purchase the Lord of the Rings location guidebook from Amazon. This was a great move because it gave us all kinds of other cool locations – and allowed us to at least pinpoint the general area we needed to head to. This book is a must for any fan of the movies going to New Zealand.
But it still didn’t give us the specific location of that scene.
So I took the next logical step and reached out to some really awesome bloggers who had been in the area. One of which, Amanda from dangerous-business.com (which is where I learned about how awesome the Edoras location was) recommended I reach out to a tour operator. The other one, Rikka from Deviating the Norm actually tried to reach out to people she knew from the area.
No luck either way.
At last, I just started reaching out to local hotel/motel owners. They too were unsure, but finally someone pointed me in the direction of the actual landowners where the shots were filmed. I reached out to them and…paydirt! Sue Falconer, one of the landowners, not only knew the area but offered to take us there for a relatively small fee.
AWESOME.
But still, my semi-OCD about the whole thing (this had now become a huge challenge that I was determined to overcome) was gnawing at me during the whole lead up to the trip so I tried reaching out to others in order to get some kind of secondary confirmation.
No one was able to guarantee anything and I’m sure everyone I asked thought I was completely nuts. Even on our tour of the Wellington film locations our guide (who himself was obsessed with showing us exact spots used in exact screen caps) didn’t seem too confident about anything. Worse, he painstakingly showed the tour how often multiple locations were used in creating certain shots, sometimes from locations hundreds of miles apart.
Ugh.
The morning of our tour arrived and Sue picked us up from where we were staying. Her confidence and encyclopedic knowledge about the movies and region in general was very encouraging right from the start. Still… this was literally our only chance at this and at this point it had nothing to do even with the movies… I just wanted to WIN.
As we crossed over onto her property though, that feeling quickly faded. The whole Ida Valley and specifically the Poolburn Reservoir/Bonspiel Station area is simply magic. More than anywhere else we went, the landscape is utterly fantastical. Nothing was changed for the movies, aside for a few road improvements and the removal of some fences. This was really Rohan, home of the horse lords, with the unique rocks sticking out of the ground in all kinds of crazy formations.
Like hundreds of other places in New Zealand, you don’t need to be a Lord of the Rings geek to appreciate the amazing landscape. Who cares about some stupid video clip when you’re surrounded by views like this? I mean, really.
And Sue proved to be an excellent guide. She took us to specific locations used in the filming and shared with us all kinds of interesting stories, not just about the movies, but about life in the Ida Valley in general. It was really cool.
It also didn’t take long for her to deliver on her confidence. One of our first stops was one of the exact spots where Legolas uses his “elf eyes” to see.
There was no doubt about it – we were there. This is where they freakin’ took the hobbits to Isengard.
The other locations in the clip were really just random rocks on the property, so we just picked a few that looked like them and did the rest there. Here’s the finished product:
Sue also took us into a few other shooting locations, which were maybe even cooler. We went to the canyon where Pippin drops his leaf pin and Aragorn does his whole “listening to the rock” routine. We did some more videos there, with Sue’s help.
Finally we went out to the Poolburn reservoir itself for another cool movie location. This was also precisely as it looked in the movies and a beautiful place in and of itself. Of course by this point it was starting to rain so it was time to pack it in for the day and move on.
In the end, I was really happy with the day and the tour itself. We ended up being with Sue for over two hours and she was really cool, taking pictures and video of us even without us needing to ask. She also knows EVERYTHING about the region. She also apparently got questions from every tour guide and hotel/motel operator in the neighborhood about the location… since everyone I asked had to ask her… since it’s her property…
Oof.
Well whatever, at least I can save you the trouble if you’re going to the neighborhood without a tour and want to find this most elusive of meme locations.
Side quest: COMPLETED.
UPDATE (3/5/2023): Amazingly this post keeps getting more and more traffic lately, and I’ve been reliably informed that the owner of the property’s name is actually SUE not SHARON. Everything else is still right, and in reviewing my notes (from 6 years ago!!) I believe that I somehow wrote her name down wrong after meeting with her, but yes it is definitely Sue (and her daughter Sarah) that we interacted with! Hope she still remembers us, and if anyone speaks to her, please apologize to her for all the people we’ve sent over years who have been asking for “Sharon” lol oops!!
The short answer is... sort of? It's not really "secret" in that it's pretty well…
There's a point in a person's life, where it becomes easier to romanticize the past…
After a really rough start to our trip, I was finally able to get myself…
So... the first half this trip has been C-H-A-L-L-E-N-G-I-N-G. My situation did not improve after…
It's been over a year since my last post. A less-than-stellar experience getting to, and…
After our successful Jamaica trip, we decided we wanted one last hurrah before Ariel went…
View Comments
YOU DID IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You WON! I am so incredibly delighted by this, you have NO IDEA!
I have linked to your post from mine. And now I am certain that you are at LEAST as nerdy as I am. Those videos are hilarious - I love it!
WELL DONE! And now I have to go back there....!!
Thanks so much Rikka! I was going to reach out to you and let you know we managed to do it but the site is still in sort of a "beta" phase so I was going to tinker with it a bit more before really going public. But seeing your reaction, I'm glad you saw it now! Yeah, it was really exciting to get to the place, especially when it was so up in the air based on what I was seeing online beforehand. Thanks so much for your help with everything, there's still so much to to write about our New Zealand trip. Being back means lots of other "distractions" though (AKA real life responsibilities) so it is slow going.
absolutely amazing! Me and my friend have just arrived in NZ from UK to do a big tour so excited for this and just wondered if you have co ordinates where sharon took you on the tour?
Again well done and if not then i guess we will have to go adventuring too!
Hey Robert, thanks so much for your comments! So I don't have the coordinates and anyway it's on private land so you would need to speak to the property owner. I'd be happy to put you in touch with the landowners if you're interested in arranging a tour. I'm sure they'd be happy to take you around like they did for us! And at a very reasonable price too.
Hey, I'm actually living in Queenstown at the moment and would love to arrange for a tour. Any chance you could put me in touch with the land owners? Thanks!!
Definitely can! Drop me a line at (deleted to cut spam)@hotmail.com and I'll connect you with the people who did our tour for us!
my husband and I just got back in April and this was one of the location I wasn't able to find! We are heading back in February and I would love to get in contact with Sharon to schedule a tour!
Thanks!
Hey! I'm actually living in Queenstown and would love to visit those locations. Do you think you could put me in touch with the land owner so that I can arrange a tour? Thanks and nice work finding it!
Hey! My husband and I went to New Zealand back in April and hit up so many of the Lord of the Rings film locations but this is one of the ones we missed. Since we are going back in February, I would love to get in contact with Sharon to arrange a tour! Thank you so much for finding this!
Gah, I just saw this now. Please drop me a line at (deleted to reduce spam)@hotmail.com and I'll send you Sharon's contact information.
This was definitely a tough place to find and is absolutely inaccessible without talking to the land owners or going on a tour. Really happy to share our experience and help some fellow Tolkien fans find their way!
Hello!
We are some people from Sweden also wanting to take the hobbits to Isengard <3.
This would be the perfect place to visit and please can you help out finding the land owners contact? :)
We are just about to visit our first locations on the south island tomorrow.
Really nice read and I'm so happy you found it! :D
Hey Dennis! Glad to hear you are making your trip. Is the email address in your comment accurate? If so, I'll send you the contact information for the woman who did our tour for us!
Hi..I stumbled across Rikka's and then your blogs during my research of LOTR sites for my Feb 2020 trip to New Zealand I am currently planning. I would love it if you could provide contact information for Sharon and cost of her tour so I can see the sites on the private land. Thank you so much
Sure thing Karen! Is the email address on you account (I think it's an AOL address?) active? If so I'll email you her contact information!
Hi there, on your tour did Sharon show you the rock formation Aragorn and Legolas stood on (that sweeping shot which Aragorn says "Rohan, home of the horse lords, there's something strange at work here")?
Heading to Middle Earth again next summer and I've made it my quest to find every location the man and the elf stood on lol.
It'd be great if you can throw in Sharon's contact too! Thanks a million
Hey Melissa! Check your email (hoping the one you used to post the comment is accurate if not let me know) for Sharon's contact info.
I think you're referring to this scene, yeah?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfZBayQxkx8
So the first part of the scene where the Uruk-Hai run through the canyon 100% you will see since that is (unbelievably!) on her property.
Same deal for the rock Aragorn listens to the rock and where Legolas and Gimli start running (it's just on the end of the canyon from earlier).
The sweeping shots of them running along the ridge - that I don't know.
THEN they pick up the leaf - which we recreated ourselves - also back at the same canyon, some videographic trickery makes it look like it's a different place. But if you look closely you can see it's the same location just different angles and different rocks.
THEN we come to the part I believe you are looking for. That sweeping shot - I believe - is the same as the area used for the actual "taking the hobbits to Isengard!" clip. That is BASICALLY where we did our recreation in the YouTube video above. If you want to really nail the specific geo location it's going to be tough (I think the rock I'm standing on in my picture is in the right general vicinity but the mountains look a little closer in the clip so probably need to go a little deeper into the valley), but maybe you could try to better line up screen capture images with where you are actually standing than we did. Sharon was really cool about trying to get us to exactly where we wanted to go - and she also knows every inch of her property. Not to mention, she's the person filming us in a bunch of our clips. She also has stories and can show you all kinds of cool stuff about places the cast spent time. And just in case you forget any of the lines, she has all the lines that were recorded on her property printed. She was really really great.
There is also the unfortunate possibility that some of the clip was NOT filmed on her property. Some of those scenes were done nearby. Worse yet (which made this all the more annoying in my initial research), Peter Jackson had a habit of filming the same scene in locations hundreds of miles apart. The boats down the Anduin scene in LOTR, for example, was literally shot partially on the North Island and partially on the South Island.
However, if you watch the films with commentary, all of these initial Rohan scenes were filmed around Poolburn Dam. So you'll be there, you may just not be EXACTLY there.
Hey Liran
Thanks a million for your awesome comment. I'll be sure to do the lining up of screenshots, sounds just like the kind of nerdy geeky research I love. Will let ya know how the communication with Sharon goes and when I get to the home of the horselords!
Happy to help! Let me know also if you're planning on going anywhere else. If you're a big Rohan fan I highly recommend going to Mount Sunday, AKA Edoras:
http://timewearegiven.com/2017/12/02/finding-edoras-aka-mount-sunday-new-zealand/
It's not really close to Poolburn, but not THAT far either.
Please check back in and let me know how it goes. Thanks again for stopping by!
Hi liran !
I'm going to NZ in November. I'll be staying 10 days arround Queenstown. And I would like to visit this locations that Sharon took you )
Can you send me her contacts? )
My email is (i'll write it separately so the filter don't delete it)
first part : nuriko34counter
second part: @gmail.com
Thank you!
Oh man! I just saw this now! I'll email you the contact info immediately! Please let me know how it goes. I've sent a few people Sharon's way over the past couple of years and I really hope she is still going strong with this.
Hi,
Seeing these places is exactly what I want to on my trip to New Zealand. I'm coming from Ireland in January and was wondering whether to stay overnight in the area, or do a day trip from Queenstown (which I understand to be only 2 hours drive away?). Which would you recommend?
I'd really appreciate it if you could send me the contact details for Sharon Falconer. I found an old "Otago Tours" webpage that seemed to offer this as a tour but they're not taking bookings anymore. It would be fantastic if I could arrange something with Sharon directly.
Please send it on to my @gmail.com account, the username being highfunctionfilms
Thanks for sharing your story,
Jonathan
Hey Jonathan! Glad to hear you'll be chasing the hobbits to Isengard as well. I'll send you the contact information via email shortly. As you read in my post, I can relate to your trouble finding this - I even found the same "Otago Tours" website you did! I eventually resorted to randomly emailing businesses there to see if they could point me in the right direction. They all sent me to Sharon!
In terms of going there from Queenstown - you probably could do that, although going back/forth will eat up a solid chunk of your day. Another thing to keep in mind, is that in NZ whatever the expected travel time is, you're going to want to substantially increase it. Not sure if you're from the USA or someone else where we drive on the right, but that alone is enough to slow you down if you're not used to it. Aside from that, there are gravel roads on the way that Waze/Maps/etc. don't calculate properly. And - most importantly - there are so many amazing things to see in NZ you'll be stopping on the way (otherwise why even go there!).
I think Sharon has some lodgings on her property which we didn't know about until AFTER we were there, so I can't speak to whether they're good/bad/in between. We stayed at a really nice place called Millfield Cottage (via Air BnB) and the owner was really nice and accommodating for us. There was also a bar/restaurant in town (I think there's only one) where the food was actually excellent. I would recommend staying in the Ida Valley, which is beautiful and 100% evocative of Middle Earth. Queenstown is a great city, but if you're going for an LOTR experience, the more time you can stay in the "Wilderland" the better IMHO.
Hi!
Oh thanks for writing such a wonderful post and providing so much information from your trip! Came across your website whilst doing some LOTR location research for my upcoming NZ trip.
Would you kindly be able to provide me with Sharon Falconer e-mail please? Would love to get in touch with her.
1stpart: jamievella11
2ndpart: @gmail.com
many kind regards,
Jamie
Sent via email as you requested! Thanks so much for your comment and for reading!