Lake-Town

Lake-town is set in front of the glacial-blue waters of Lake Pukaki, with Mt. Cook located 15 minutes outside the town of Twizel. The stunning blue water, with Mt. Cook in the background, was breathtaking, resembling another desktop wallpaper. We had the pleasure of walking the grounds that were used to film Lake-town. Ian Hayman was comical, witty, and patient with us as we took the time to admire his land. He told us numerous stories about being on set, including having a chat with Orlando Bloom about his aerial communication system (a broken earpiece and some loose wires shoved into a cap with a fake antenna on top of it). He said for the first few days, he saw crew members have one, so why couldn't he? We shot some arrows at Smaug himself and took the time to enjoy the scenery around us.

A couple of hundred feet from the road, you can walk down to the beach to get a good view of Mt. Cook. "There are so many rocks!" said my Mom, who has a thing for collecting all that is driftwood, sea glass, and heart-shaped rocks. She knew that if she stepped one foot on that beach, she was probably not going to come back. For reference, by the time our trip came to an end, she had accumulated over 10 lbs worth of rocks. Talk about an overweight bag!

We were given permission to fly our drones around, and even with the images and videos that we collected, it still didn't look real!