Lords of the Rings Tour to Deer Park Heights at Queenstown

Lords of the Rings Tour to Deer Park Heights at Queenstown

My most latest Lord of the Rings guided tour was to Deer Park Heights in February 2009. As the identify indicates, it is 800m earlier mentioned Queenstown and there are heaps of deer all-around.

In mid-2009, the owner made the decision to near off this 800-hectare Deer Park for community obtain. It is a pity while as the surroundings up there is wonderful! It was right here the place I experienced my closest come upon with a deer. Let me share with you my experiences.

Lord of the Rings Tour to Deer Park Heights
The entrance to Deer Park Heights is from Kelvin Heights Peninsula Road. As you push alongside, you get to see quite a few kinds of animals roaming close to freely. It is form of like a safari-design park.

The animals incorporate Bison, Donkeys, Goats, Highland Cattle, Himalayan Thar, Llama, Miniature Horses and Sheep. There is also a nut dispenser and nut tins in this article for you to feed the animals.

Most people today likely did not know this. There is a Korean Prison motion picture set designed for a Walt Disney Movie “The Rescue” in 1986 in this article! From one particular facet, it appears to be like like Middle Earth, and from another, it seems to be like you are in olden days Korea.

The entrepreneurs remaining the motion picture established untouched for the final 20+ years. Nonetheless, the setting up is no longer risk-free for entry. You can only see it from outside. There is most likely nothing at all much inside in any case.

For most of the internet sites, we bought to vacation by foot. Going for walks sticks and water-proof jackets ended up offered (also for actors through Lord of the Rings filming), and it form of gave you a sensation like you had been going for walks in Middle Earth.

Did you know that the publicity shots for Gandalf ended up finished suitable in this article at Deer Park Heights? In simple fact, the hillside angles have been applied for
a lot of areas as ‘pick-up’ shots in all a few Lord of the Rings movies.

At a modest mountain tarn 500m south of the car park, a quick sequence was filmed exhibiting Gandalf riding to Minas Tirith on the West Highway to Gondor. Just after the cattle halt, that was the exit wall from Paths of the Dead.

Further more in, at the still left of a significant gate, was the rock wall the place the Warg scout jumped off and killed Hama. Proceed upwards was where Gimli was thrown from his runaway horse, to the amusement of Eowyn.

Continuing up the road to a strolling path led to the cliff encounter wherever Aragorn was dragged in excess of. In the film, there should really be a river right here. The real truth is, that place is really grass. Also, it was below wherever the Wargs and Riders of Rohan clashed.

More up the hill, it was where by Legolas did his remarkable bounce onto his horse just before the battle. And there was also a rock shelf wherever Legolas fired his very first arrows at the Wargs as they came about the hill.

Past but not minimum, around the large tarn close to the top rated, it was where by Rohirrim Refugees have been led on a flawlessly crystal clear and pristine wintertime morning. And the extras for this scene had been locals from Queenstown and neighbouring cities!

In actuality, the locations are really far aside geographically, but the concluded sequences in the movies made it glimpse so much nearer. That’s the wonders of cinematography consequences!

To conclude, this was an incredible fifty percent-working day tour. The see up at Deer Park Heights was definitely spectacular. Let’s hope that they will reopen the park before long for public entry once once more.