Edoras (Lord of the Rings) — Attraction in South Island

A must visit for all LOTR fans, or fans of the outdoors. There are day tour trips to here from Christchurch, costs around the £150 mark. Or hire a car and visit as I did on my tour around the Island. The car park is free and walking time from there depends on your strengths, from around 10mins to 20mins. The roads are quiet but it does change to a track closer to mount Sunday (it's real name), so speed does as well. Yes you can get a car along it no problem but it is covered with loose shingle. (Included a picture of it for you as Google street view stops where it starts.) There are no hills to climb until the mount and the pathway is clearly marked. No specialist walking boots are really required although I would never say don't if you have them. All I would say is pick a good day as weather changes in the mountains. Take a warm jacket, as wind plays it part and water/ pack lunch. As an added note there are no toilets there but there is a stop in Potts Lodge around 10 min drive or Clearwater Lake about 20mins on route from mount Sunday, where there are. The views are worth it...

Absolutely loved it! First time I came here was with a tour. It was nice to just sit back, relax, listen to the tour guide and see some short clips about Lord of the rings. Amazing views way before we even got there. Just make sure you have a car that's allowed to go on gravel road because it's quite a long way on the gravel road. Just amazing the drive up there and than that first look down to Edoras, jaw dropping! Oke the actual castle is not there but the 'mountain' where Rohan was build on and the surrounded land is! Driving down and walking on the land felt almost as holy land. Because of the tour we saw actual pictures of Lord of the Rings and the view to compare it then and there, just amazing! And offcourse a big bonus that there were props like the flag of Rohan, Sword of Aragorn and axe of Gimli. To stand on the top and take if all in.... felt like I was almost part of that whole experience of...

It’s really amazing, LOTR fan or not. The scenery and expansiveness is awe-inspiring. Definitely recommend the morning period, though the sun doesn’t make it onto Mount Sunday till after 10am or so. We had the whole place to ourselves besides a few cows and rabbits!

It was a long drive on the gravel road though, and Google seems to have corrected the trip ETA. We averaged 40-60kph on the gravel. It was worth it and the drive back went by quickly!

Hike is not demanding though you do ascend rather quickly. There are steps dug into the grass and the path is well-marked.

Definitely check the hourly weather forecast before going, to hopefully get a period of clearer skies! We timed ours perfectly and left right as the clouds moved in. Once they rolled in on our drive back, the whole...