Taking The Hobbits To Isengard 10 Hours
They're Taking The Hobbits To Isengard 10 Hours
They took the hobbits to Isengard. 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 (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 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 andpaydirt! Sharon 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 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 arrived and Sharon 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. Rohan, home of the horse lords.
And lots of rocks.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. Poolburn Reservoir in the Ida Valley.
Like walking into a movie. In real life.And Sharon 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. The original “taking the hobbits to isengard” scene.There was no doubt about it – we were there.
This is where they freakin’ took the hobbits to Isengard. Where WE 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:Note: we weren’t exactly going for an exact representation (we didn’t use props or try to stay in character or anything).
This was just for laughs. The point of the exercise was finding an elusive place. We’ll leave it to the true fans to go back there and do a proper recreation.Sharon 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 Sharon’s help. Leaf Brooch Canyon, where Pippin did not “idly” drop his leaf.NOT IDLY DO THE LEAVES OF LORIEN FALL YOU GUYSFinally 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. The “Rohan Village” which was burned down by Saruman’s jerk people. Fun fact, it was ACTUALLY burned down by the effects people.In the end, I was really happy with the day and the tour itself.
We ended up being with Sharon 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 propertyOof.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.And while it didn’t help us find the place they took the hobbits to Isengardthe Lord of the Rings location guidebook did help us find tons of other really awesome places. Must-buy for anyone going to New Zealand who has ever seen the movies.
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.
Our Other Subreddits -Resources -Featured Sub » About /r/Videos. A great place for video content of all kinds. Direct links to major video sites are preferred (e.g. YouTube, Vimeo, etc.)Rules 0. Videos Only.Self explanatory. Audio over a static image or slideshow may also violate Rule 0.This includes music visualizers and lyric videos1. No Politics.Political videos—including content relating to —should be submitted to.This includes submissions of current or recent political figures in any context, satire/political-comedy, and posts on political topics from within the last 10 years.
(So a video of Winston Churchill playing tennis would be allowed, but a video of Theresa May playing ping-pong would not be.)2. No Personal Information or Witch-Hunting.Or incitement to witch-hunt.No demanding 'Reddit Justice' (or even regular justice) in any way in post titles or comments.Do not post names, Facebook pages, phone numbers, addresses, etc. Fake information (, 123 fake street, etc) also falls under this rule.This may also include contact information of public officials, businesses, or groups (e.g.
Politicians or police officers) in an any manner that could be seen as an attempt to get users to contact them.Facebook links are not permitted. In order to have your post accepted, if you can, find or submit a copy of the video on another website like YouTube or Vimeo and resubmit it.This is grounds for an immediate (and likely permanent) ban, so consider this your only warning.3. Submit Direct Link to Video.No web pages that only embed Youtube or Vimeo videos.No URL shorteners.No links to playlists or to channel pages.4. No Porn, Gore, or Death. There are many other subreddits and websites that cater for that content.5. No Solicitation of Votes or Views.No asking for votes or sharing submission links on or off-site. See for more details.Do not ask other users to follow your social media profiles in comments or submission titles.Titles for posts should not try to influence users to view or upvote them.
Examples of this include things like 'this person deserves more views,' 'not enough people have seen this person's videos,' or 'show this person some love.' .Giveaways also fall under this rule.Violations can lead to a permanent ban of accounts and video channels.6. No Hate Speech.You are free to offer your opinion respectfully, but comments or posts intended to demean a group, acontextual expressions of bigotry, and the pejorative use of slurs is disallowed.Baiting users into breaking this rule is not allowed.Telling other users to hurt or kill themselves in any form is against reddit TOS, and will earn you a permanent ban.Be kind to users in our community;7. No Videos of Assault/Battery or Public Freakouts.No videos of real-life, malicious person-on-person assault/battery or physical abuse of animals.This includes raw videos of fights and malicious violence.This includes videos of child and animal abuse.This includes raw videos of fights, police brutality/harassment, and malicious violence.Public freakout videos belong in8. No Third Party Licensing.No videos that are licensed by a third party.If the video description says: 'for licensing enquiries contact ', the video is most likely licensed by a third party.
If the video has a watermark, it also may be licensed by a third party.Videos that become licensed after they are posted will be removed. Please see for a more detailed explanation.Third-Party Licensing firms are often scams.Moderation Removals & Warnings.If your submission does not appear in the please (be sure to include a link to the Reddit post (i.e. Comments section), not the content you are linking). Simply deleting your post may cause the spam filter to catch future ones.Note: Submissions from new users, and users with low karma, are automatically removed to help prevent spam.Also, please contact us regarding spam, political or any other inappropriate videos, as this helps us remove them more quickly! When reporting, please explain why you think it should be removed.Do not message moderators individually about posts not appearing in the new queue or ban appeals. Messages should be sent as a modmail to.
Failure to do so may result in a ban.Submit Feedback. Send us a mod mail anytime or head to our Discord linked above.Spoiler Tags.Spoilers: spoiler(#s) =Related Subreddits.