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Category: Lord of the Rings

They’re taking the hobbits to Isengard: Rohan, (AKA the Ida Valley, New Zealand)

They’re taking the hobbits to Isengard: Rohan, (AKA the Ida Valley, New Zealand)

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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…

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One does NOT simply walk into Mordor… Or traverse the Tongariro Alpine Crossing

One does NOT simply walk into Mordor… Or traverse the Tongariro Alpine Crossing

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On Wednesday, Ariel and I traversed the Tongariro Alpine Crossing. Or in other words, we attempted to simply walk into Mordor. We had known this day was coming for months and even made some half-hearted attempts to “train” for it by doing a few hour-long hikes around New Jersey. We were unprepared. Our bus picked us up from the Park Hotel where we were staying at 7:30 am and dropped us off at the start of the trail around 8…

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First days in Middle Earth… I mean New Zealand

First days in Middle Earth… I mean New Zealand

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Well, it certainly has been a pretty nutty first few days for Ariel and I on our trip. Our goal has been to combine the Tolkien stuff with some of the, you know, actual real New Zealand. Renting a car (or taking buses) is a great way to see how the country really works. This is a major reason why we didn’t just book ourselves on a Lord of the Rings type of tour. Also, we want to see what…

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