Magical Paradise

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May 21st 2006

Published: June 7th 2006

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kathleen

Kea: New Zealand's trickster alpine parrot

Eventually I managed to get this great snap of the inquisitive parrot

Passing along the Crown Range Road, through the Cardrona Valley I detoured slightly to the small settlement of Arrowtown to soak up some of the local history at the Lakes District Museum, and later continued on to Queenstown. Surrounded by majestic mountains on the shores of Lake Wakatipu, Queenstown is no doubt New Zealand's most popular and commercialised year-round resort. The town (population 10,000) boasts adventure in all forms, from the extreme to relaxed. I opted for the latter and headed out to the quiet and supremely picturesque hamlet of Glenorchy, named after Glen of Orchy, Scotland. The whole area, including an homestead called Paradise, has been deemed stunning enough to act as movie back-drops for the Rockies, the European Alps and Middle Earth!! I managed to get a fantastic feel of the place by exploring the Glenorchy Walkway, through the wetlands around the town's lagoon and soaking up the mystical landscape.

Many of New Zealand's most famous walking tracks are in Mount Aspiring/ Tititea National Park and rather than succumb to the full three- to five-day hikes I was more interested in getting a taster session and spent just seven hours walking part of the Rees-Dart Track, which was

Glenorchy lagoon

Spectacular scenery at the head of Lake Wakatipu

enough to satisfy my curiosity. I had some interesting encounters with the birdlife, in particular a friendly robin who pecked at the sandflies around the bottom of my trousers and boots and even hopped inside my car to clear away the crumbs!!

I hadn't seen anybody all day so headed back for a few drinks in the party town that is Queenstown, but knew I wouldn't be staying around for long because it's all a bit too pretentious for me. There's loads of designer ski-wear shops, expensive restaurants and many tourists.

The following morning I ambled through the Queenstown Gardens and the Saturday morning craft stalls and the only attraction to really draw my attention, and by now you'll all have realised that I'm a big fan of wildlife, was the Kiwi and Birdlife Park. There's a good range of birds, including kiwi, morepork (native owls), kea, kereru (native pigeons), kakariki (native parakeets) and black stilt (one of the world's ten most endangered bird species). The Conservation Show gave fascinating and detailed information about the kiwi, highlighting their iminent threat of distinction due to the introduction of stoat in the country, and also about tuatara, reptiles from the

Dart River near Paradise

Where a lot of LOTR was filmed

dinosaur age found nowhere else in the world.

Just before leaving Queenstown I checked out the Kawarau Bungy Centre and had absolutely no desire whatsoever to take the plunge. I was nervous enough just watching!!

Additional photos below

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