weekender in the land of Rohan

[waynemunro]

ok, I promised myself that I wouldn't bore you people silly with more pictures of the places that I manage to find to dump my weekender in the water... however, I couldn't resist this one.

We were across at a little lake called Lake Camp in the weekend (about 1.75 hours drive from Christchurch NZ), a few miles up the road is the small hill where the Golden Hall was built for the filming of the Rohan sections of the Lord of the Rings...

wind was light, but we still tootled around nicely.

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[Brent]

Not boring at all, please continue to send more pictures from scenic Middle Earth.

[Dave Ruedel]

You can almost see the Riders of Rohan moving across the plain! Isn't it dangerous sailing in Orc country, or do you keep an elf and a dwarf on board in case of emergencies By the way, the boat looks great, too.

[Dave R1]

Wayne, that's not boring in the least. Keep posting those pictures. Remember, some of us must live vicariously through others until the water gets softer.

Question about the area. Is it lacking in trees due to the elevation, latitude, climate or what? I wondered about that when I saw the making of the trilogy.

Dave

[Johannah]

What ever gave you the idea that your pictures and posts are boring :shock: ? In Winter, we hang on every encouraging word from Upside-downia. By the way, congratulations to all New Zealand for dominating the big event in the film industry, right down to having the youngest nominee (who was outstanding in Whale Rider).

[waynemunro]

well, I'm glad that you are not all bored yet

as for the orcs and elves, sadly there were none to be seen about the place on that day, rumour would have it that most of them were at the oscars. There is actually very little sign of even the filming that took place up there, I beleive that even the road that they put in up to the mound was put back to how it was beforehand, the grass that they removed was cared for in a seperate location, and then replaced afterwards.. scary.

I am not too sure why the location is quite so barren, though it is not quite as bad as it looks, there is the odd stand of trees around the place. I suspect it is a combination of altitude and climate, but I would guess that altitude plays the larger part. I think this lake has been known to freeze over in very cold winters, one of only a handful of easily accessible lakes which do it.

[buck]

If the truth be known, Waynes known to get up and slay the odd Orc before breakfast, all part of the job. What I was wondering is this the highest altitude a Weekender has sailed at?

[Simon]

Question about the area. Is it lacking in trees due to the elevation' date=' latitude, climate or what? I wondered about that when I saw the making of the trilogy.

Dave[/quote']

I think in the book its been deforrested by men, or perhaps orcs. Might be the same situation in NZ, over a matter of centuries. Certainly Easter Island was densely forrested before the arrival of the pacific isalnder population. I saw a documentry about the large stone heads, which were the product of a much larger population than was found by Europeans on the island, which had died out due to starvation caused by the destruction of habitat (i.e. deforestation).

Those orcs were pretty hard on the forrests, hence the uprising of the Ents and subsequent victory at Helms Deep. Kind of lucky for the Rohanites really ...

[waynemunro]

I ave just checked the altitude of the lake on my topomap, and it is 680m (2230 ft), wasn't able to find another local lake higher.. so I guess that will stand as my personal record for a while

[Mike Pennington]

Paxson Lake off the Richardson Hwy central Alaska 2553 ft. First snow in the Wrangle Mts. Sept 2002, I saw a black bear chase two carabou into swimming the lake to get away that day. It was cold camping, went home and put the boat up for that winter.

[Phil Gowans]

This is ALOHA on Strawberry Lake in Utah at 7600 ft. with some neighbor kids back in 2001. We've got lakes higher than that in Utah, but most of them are small and or hard to get to. I've wanted to sail on Fish Lake for some time, but havent made it there yet. It's 8900 ft. I'll have to try harder.

I hadn't thought that I was setting any records, just sailing around home. I guess Utah is higher than a lot of places. I just checked and the lowest lake ALOHA has been on is the Great Salt Lake at 4200 ft. In fact the lowest lake in Utah is over 2300 ft. I would imagine that there are some boats on higher lakes in Colorado.

[waynemunro]

phew.. well I think we will consider ourselves not even in the running down here then

whats the air like up there Phil ? wonder if you get less boat speed per knot of wind..

[Mike Pennington]

I was waiting for that one Phil.

Mike

[waynemunro]

just found this page, on high lakes:

http://highestlake.com/highest-lake-world.html

if I got my weekender helicoptered up to 'crater lake', and could handle sailing in the 60 degree Celcius waters - then I could bag number 33 in the world... however, it seems doubtful that either I'm going to pay for that, or that the authorities would allow it

[Phil Gowans]

Wayne, That's an interesting site. I'm familiar with Ruapehu, I lived in Taupo in back in 1967. It would be quite a challenge to sail. That's the trouble with most of the highest lakes that he has listed, they're not too accessible. His list doesn't include any in the United States on that list, but has a separate site for them: http://highestlake.com/highest-lake-usa.html#Pacific He lists 14 lakes over 12,800 ft.

When I started sailing Utah, I made a list of all lakes with boat launch facilities and have been crossing them off. I've still got lots to go. If you want to check it out it's at: http://www.pragdata.com/philboat/Utlktbls.htm

As far as the winds here, I suppose you are right they should pack a bit less of a punch. I know we have quite a bit lower boiling point here. One interesting thing about the Great Salt Lake, the density of the water is so much higher than normal water it can throw you around a lot more than most sailing, especially on the "pink side".

[Mr. Scott]

Great pic from all over The New Zealand pics kindof make me want to move there...seems warmer. Do you need a hunting license for orcs?

[waynemunro]

That is a great list that you have Phil - a fair mission that you have set yourself there - good luck with it

hunting licence for orcs... I don't think there should ever be any impediment to wiping out their nasty little lives.. they may have looked great in the film, but they can be pretty hazardous when you run into them in the wild.