Fishing at Poolburn - Lord of the Rings country.

I'm just back from an overnight trip at Poolburn Dam deep in the heart of Central Otago and one of the outstanding locations used in the filming of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. The objective was fishing, but due to many previous visits, landscape photography was on the agenda too, as the scenery is amazing and I should imagine unique in the world, and within New Zealand. It's at about 1000m above sea level in a snow tussock alpine environment, and holds brown trout.

To get there Robyn and I headed over the Thompsons Gorge in my camper truck. The route provides a 4WD access over and through the Dunstan Mountains, linking Omakau and Tarras [photo by Robyn from above the road]...


We had lunch in the shade of some unusual trees by a cattle yard. I've always wondered what they are - they're normal willow size but have quite a translucent darker green colour, yet present the under belly of the leaves to the sun a little bit, which contrasts pleasingly with their grey trunks and branches. All hard to make a photo of so I went in close...


The road up from Omakau to Poolburn always delights me with it's expansive views of the landscape with rocks, and I really like the grasses this time of year...


What Poolburn is all about [note camper truck on the right]...


There are many Kiwiana cribs [batches/holiday huts] around the area...








Our fishing spot [caught nothing though!]...


In lieu of fishing, the camera got a hammering...






On our early return today [Sunday] we were stunned to find a crane on the skyline. Some investigation revealed a Japanese green tea commercial was being made. Flying Trestles catering trucks were on-site, and Colin the owner is a friend/client, so I took a few photos for his web site...