Red Carpet’s Premiere Tour group dressed up for their Hobbiton visit
Red Carpet is steadily adding new locations into its tours in the light of the new Hobbit movie, says director Vic James.
“We’re pretty excited because since the Unexpected Journey came out, we’ve been able to add new sites and new people,” James says. “We visit landowners and check out new locations on a regular basis, as information and invitations come to hand.
“The Premiere Tour last November was the first to visit some of the new places and when the time is right for further landowners to allow visits, we will add them in.”
The north island leg of the tour includes, as before, Hobbiton and the central volcanic plateau that served as Mt Doom. A new feature are some rapids where the dwarves’ more hair-raising barrel-riding scenes were filmed.
The ‘top’ of the South Island is a beautiful addition to the tour, James says. Nelson, with its sunny bay ringed by mountains, is reached by a ferry cruise through the beautiful fjords of Marlborough Sounds. There’s a stop along the way at Pelorus Bridge, scene of Bilbo and the dwarves’ barrel-riding adventures.
Red Carpet’s LOTR tours always include visits to extras, artisans, actors and crew members for the films. Halfdan Hansen, son of the real-life Ringmaker for LOTR, has his studio in Nelson and has created a new version of the Ring, invisibly weighted with some denser metal so that it lies strangely heavy on the palm of the hand.
In Nelson there is also the option to take a two-and-a-half hour helicopter flight to Dimrill Dale and South of Rivendell. The flights have been a huge success with tour guests.
Olympus Rocks – a place to hide from the spies of Saruman
To accommodate the extra locations, tours are now 14 days duration. People can also choose to join the North Island 6 day or the South Island 10 day options. “It’s a long way to come to not see it all,” James says.
Red Carpet Tours is making a final call for fans planning to make the pilgrimage to New Zealand for ‘The Hobbit’ Premiere. This is the deluxe 14-day tour covering both islands of New Zealand, with visits to all the major LOTR and Hobbit film locations as well as automatic inclusion at the Hobbit Premiere Party in Wellington on November 26th. If you are travelling half way round the world for the event, you need to ‘Make the most of the time given to you’. Red Carpet Tours has been running these tours now for 10 years, and this year was awarded a Certificate of Excellence from Trip Advisor, as well as stellar ratings from Rankers. There is only limited space available, so book soon!
We’re happy to say that our Founder’s Day 2011 celebration has been a resounding success (see Founder’s Day story below)! Of the many wonderful contributions of the day, one stood out as especially representative of the camaraderie that many of us share as fans of J.R.R. Tolkien, Peter Jackson’s movies, and fantasy in general. Discussion board member One Ringer put together a wonderful retrospective of fan gatherings to mark the special day. In One Ringer’s own words:
“After twelves years of constant coverage of everything Tolkien, TheOneRing.net stands as the top site for a social gathering for fans of the late Professor and his work. In honor of Founders Day comes the One Slideshow to (hopefully) show many of the great memories that the members of TORn have had in the past years. Click on the link below and watch at your desired video quality. I hope you enjoy.” — One Ringer
We definitely *will* enjoy, One Ringer! Click on the link below to see this wonderful video.
Thanks to Ringer B. Armstrong for sending this in:
WELLINGTON (Reuters) – A New Zealand man has been dubbed the Lord of the Ring after he searched and found his wedding ring more than a year after it slipped off his finger and sank to the sea floor.
The ring was lost for 16 months in the harbor of the country’s capital city, Wellington, before Aleki Taumoepeau found it shining on the sea floor, the DominionPost newspaper reported Thursday.
“The whole top surface of the ring was glowing,” Taumoepeau, an ecologist, said.
Taumoepeau had been married for just three months when he lost the wedding ring while conducting an environmental sweep of the harbor.
