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Mavora Lakes

Nen Hithoel On the way back to Queenstown, we decided to make a detour to see the Mavora Lakes, which are situated in the mountains north-east of Te Anau. After some 40km on unsealed roads, through wide paddocks, passing many cows, you enter a lovely beech forest. The edge of these woods were used to portray Fangorn forest in TTT. Eventually you reach the edge of North Mavora, which became Nen Hithoel, Lake of Many Mists, in FoTR. The photo above looks towards where Rauros and Tol Brandir were painted in. LoTR trivia aside, this is a lovely place, miles out of the way of most tourists, and wonderfully silent and peaceful. Somewhat strangely, the woods are very quiet, and you only hear the odd tui cry and the sound of the wind.

If we had had a GPS device, we would have been able to find the exact location of the tree were Frodo hid from the Uruk Hai, right at the end of FoTR, using the compass coordinates (!) given in the Book of Nonsense. Be that how it may, it is definitely here somewhere.

Silverlode We ate lunch - bread, gherkins, cheese, tomatoes - at the water's edge, and it was simply lovely. Behind Selina, you can see where the Mararoa River runs up, at the southern end of Mavora Lake, or, if you will, where the Silverlode joins the Anduin, (minus swingbridge, of course). An example, I guess, of how cleverly one location can be put to a variety of uses, sometimes quite unrelated.

There was no need to bring any drink for the picnic - we just drank straight out of the lake, as you can see. A few yards from here, Frodo pushed out the boat and set off for Mordor. The water was so cold that it fairly numbed your hands just from having a quick drink, and I definitely did not envy Sean his multiple immersions.

I very much wished that we could have stayed a few days at Lake Mavora, fishing, tramping, or just sitting at the water's edge listening to the silence. It was a truly lovely place, tranquil and beautiful - if you had only seen the dusty road that led there across brown and yellow fields, you would never have guessed what a lush, secret treasure of a place lay ahead. Sadly, though, we had places to go and things to do. Onwards to Glenorchy.