Happy Friday everyone! ? Check out this jaw-dropping LOTR film location brought to you by beautiful New Zealand!

Why not a quick jaunt down to Middle Earth? Close your eyes, imagine you're there. Now scroll down! you're here! ;)

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I wrote a post back when I first started that talked about my fan-hood of LOTR (Lord of the Rings) I read the books when I was too young to be reading something that dense and ever since, I have been mildly obsessed with the series, the characters and Tolkien himself. I was beyond myself when they released the films and watched all of the behind the scenes footage I could get my eyes on!

Whenever I traveled to New Zealand, knowing that it was the country where LOTR and the Hobbit movies were filmed, I mapped out the film site destinations and made sure to visit as many as I could. These sites were breathtaking- obviously chosen for good reason!

Here is one of my favorite spots. It's a little bit off the beaten track and was definitely one of the lesser known sites I visited.

Gollum's Pool (The Forbidden Pool, LOTR: The Two Towers).

Tawhai Falls, North Island, New Zealand.

You'll have to pull off the highway at a sign on the side of the road for the falls. Once there, you'll walk into a path, along many trees and flowers, down and down you'll go.

If you peak through the trees, you'll see this here:

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Being the rebel I am(always trying to get the epic photo spots), I snuck and ducked my way down into this path and crawled around some rocks to get to this view point. I was positive this was where Gollum was sitting in the movie! (However, the scene was actually more under the falls, and currently I am above!)

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(This is my Gollum pose! I'm not a very scary person and no fish were available that day!) ;)

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Continuing down the hidden path, trying to find the exact scene from the movie, I looked to my side and saw this (seemingly inviting) water:

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That water is ice cold, trickling down from the ice-capped Mountain, Ruahepu (the country's largest active volcano) some 19km away.

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Looking down on the ice blue is like a dream!

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Do you recognize this waterfall from the film? Gollum is feasting on a fish he's just caught when Frodo comes down, taunted by Faramir to collect his beast. (The part where Gollum thinks Frodo betrayed him.)

[Gollum]
Rock in the pool
So nice and cool
So juicy sweet!
Now we wish
To catch? a fish
So juicy sweet!

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A quote from the book:

“Far below them they saw the white waters pour into a foaming bowl, and then swirl darkly about a deep oval basin in the rocks”.

It looks a much less doom-and-gloom in real life, doesn't it?

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Wanting to get into character, I took a dip in the frigid waters and immediately regretted that (since no one documented it for me) ;)

You'll have to trust me that although it was an adventure, I promise you it's an ice-bucket-challenge-polar-dip-situation! BRRRRR!! It took me forever to warm back up and get the frost out of my hair but at least Faramir didn't take me hostage! :)

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?Have a fantastic Friday my friends! ?
If you're feeling like spreading some love, click here to check out my initiative to help support stray dogs in Bali- I will be donating all post profits to the shelter where I got my dogs from! ?

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Sending love through color!
XO,