Home » New Zealand » Rohan and Wildlife Near Queenstown November 24, 2004

For a brilliant combination of stunning scenery, wildlife, and Lord of the Rings film locations, Deer Park Heights is hard to beat. This huge deer farm is situated on a hill overlooking Queenstown and Lake Wakatipu in New Zealand's South Island.
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Rohan and Wildlife Near Queenstown November 24, 2004

Ttrealtravels
2005-12-26 15:28:26

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For a brilliant combination of stunning scenery, wildlife, and Lord of the Rings film locations, Deer Park Heights is hard to beat. This huge deer farm is situated on a hill overlooking Queenstown and Lake Wakatipu in New Zealand's South Island.

Drive out of town on the SH6A towards the airport. Turn right (to the airport, Remarkables, and Te Anu) at SH6 in Frankton. Go past the airport and over the one-way bridge. One or two kilometers on the right will be a turnoff to Kelvin Heights. Take this and go 4 or 5km to the Deer Park Height's entrance on the left.

Entry fee for the park was $20NZ per car. Make sure to get one of the free maps -- this will list all the film sites, plus has details on all the animals you can see. Drive 5k up the mostly unpaved road right to the East or West summit and walk around to the six Lord of the Rings locations marked.

While the Lord of the Rings sites are marked, it's not always clear what was filmed there. Many Two Towers scenes in Rohan took place here -- the Fellowship fighting the wargs and orcs, plus Rohan refugees traveling to Helm's Deep. But only the spot where Aragorn falls over a cliff is sign-posted as such. For everything else, you have to use your imagination and memory of the movies.

Still, it was easy to see this all as Rohan landscape. Like Poolburn, everywhere were grassy hillsides with unusual black rocks. A couple small lakes were scattered between hills and vales. Narrow paths lead around everything.

Best of all, the top of this mountain gave amazing views of Queenstown, the lake, and the craggy snow-topped mountains surrounding the area.

Two days before, we'd been at the Remarkables on a clear day. Yesterday had a storm, and now the harrowing peaks of the Remarkables were dusted with snow. All around we could see a distinct snowline -- black rock and deep green forest below, sifted sugar snow above. What a difference a day made.

My favorite Lord of the Rings spot at Deer Park was Aragorn's Cliff. In the movie, it looks like he falls to his death. But in reality the stone ledge only dropped about six feet to another rocky outcrop and then to a gentle slope below. Just a trick of perspective. I was also amused at how Aragorn fell near Queenstown, yet landed by a river on the North Island!

On the road up to the summit and again on the route back, we passed a surprising number of animals. Miniature horses were kept in a petting zoo near the entrance. Goats and mountain tarn were both penned and running free. Llamas wandered across the road. Bison and Tibetan yaks stood proudly on the hills. Deer were in abundance. Shaggy mountain cattle, sheep, and regular cows grazed nearby.

All of these animals were imported -- New Zealand has no native land mammals -- but they were kept safely in the park for visitors to see. And it was a very popular park, especially for kids who liked to feed the animals at available stations.

So whether you want to see places where those fantasy movies were filmed or you like animals or you just want to see Queenstown from above, Deer Park Heights is worth a trip.