Our adventure to New Zealand is coming to an end, and this will be our last post for the trip because all we do tomorrow is fly home. We wanted something memorable for our last full day, and what could be better than to visit a beautiful natural site that also happens to be one of the most striking locations in the Lord of the Rings movies? That’s right, today we visited Mount Sunday, whose cinematic alter ego is Edoras, the capital of Rohan. You may recognize its craggy ridgeline in the photo above, although it may look somewhat different without its encrustation of Viking buildings and the golden hall of Meduseld glinting at the top.

Mount Sunday is hard to reach without a car, lying about a two hour drive from Christchurch, partly on gravel roads. Since we had already returned our rental several days ago, for this day trip we opted to sign up with a tour company (the promisingly-named Hassle-Free Tours) who would take us there and back. As a bonus, we heard movie backstory on the way there and back, and our guide even brought along some movie prop replicas for our use in case we wanted to take pictures with them.

Mount Sunday differs from Hobbiton in that there are very few traces of the movie left behind. The contract specified that the producers would remove all traces of the set and restore the site to its previous condition. They even had to replace the plants that were removed for the temporary road put in to ferry actors and equipment. However, you can still see a few signs if you know where to look — in the location where the gatehouse was built, the grass is still browner in spots where the ground was compressed either by traffic or from the weight of structures erected on top.

Once at the top we had views of the valley around in all directions. Wind is pretty much a fact of life in this valley, and it intensifies at the top. Though very strong, it was manageable during our visit. The moviemakers sometimes had to contend with speeds over 100 miles per hour, so for extra strength the set was built with a steel frame instead of wood. We had fun taking in the views, and trying to capture some pictures that evoked scenes in the movies.

All good things eventually come to an end, as with this day and this fantastic trip. We arrived back in Christchurch in the evening, and were able to visit the Riverside Market for dinner because it stays open late on Thursdays. This emporium effectively serves as a food court for the entire city — within its walls, several dozen food stalls offer nearly every style of food you can imagine. During the day it buzzes with activity as people make their way through the narrow aisles, picking out their favorite foods. We sampled beer (plus cider and ginger), burgers (vegan and lamb), and gelato (dairy and coconut-based) – yum!

As we say goodbye to Aotearoa / New Zealand, we wanted to pause and note a few of the many aspects of the country (both large and small) that made us feel welcome, and for which we are thankful. These are in no particular order, but worth mentioning first is the people, who have all been genuinely friendly to us. We lost track of the number of Kiwis who would ask us about what we had seen and planned to see, and seemed truly interested in our answers. Related to this is the ubiquity of Maori culture, from place names to greeting and welcomes. It served as a constant reminder that there can be multiple perspectives on everything. We were pleased and surprised to discover that toilets in New Zealand can be found nearly everywhere you might want one. Moreover, they are generally both clean, free, and stocked with toilet paper. We found pricing in stores and restaurants to be simple and easy: there is no tipping, and no added taxes. (Some shops do add a small surcharge if you opt to pay by credit card, but we mostly paid cash when possible.) The lack of tipping in particular was a sort of revelation: without the need to make sure that tips reach their intended recipient, the process of buying food becomes easy and efficient. Usually you can just pay at a central register whenever you are ready to leave, and service can be provided by any of the restaurant staff who is available. Finally, we really appreciated how comfortable Kiwis are with walking. It’s easy to do here, and nobody looks at you strangely if you plan to get somewhere on foot. This was good, because we walked a lot and had a lot of fun. Even though we spent five weeks here, there is so much more we’d still like to do and whole sections of the country we haven’t even seen. Odds are good that we’ll be back some day!