Paradise by name, Paradise by nature

Reluctantly leaving Queenstown, we followed Lake Wakatipu to Glenorchy; famous for it's magnificent scenery, walks and more recently, Lord of the Rings filming locations. On arrival a sign welcomes you to the area, adding it's the gateway to Paradise. This is not just a wild claim either but a geographic fact as the small farming settlement of Paradise does actually sit just North of Glenorchy. After taking the obligatory photograph of the sign post, we headed through Glenorchy in search of Paradise (so to speak) and the Lord of the Rings filming sights, 'doing it ourselves' as we're pretty skint after Queenstown! We hadn't really factored the rough terrain into our plans though and spent 10km on gravelled roads, clutching our guide book tightly whilst negotiating fords, fields and herds of sheep along the way. Our poor 3 ton, 6m long camper van didn't know what had hit it! We soon came to the end of the road, well, for our journey in the camper van anyway and had to continue on foot. We soon realised that our confidence in the guide book was severely misplaced and whilst the book gives GPS coordinates, it's written directions are pants. For over an hour we walked searching for the elusive locations where Gandolph rode down the hill to Helms Deep, the area where Isengard was projected and Mt.Earnslaw aka the Misty Mountains. After another half an hour we still couldn't find Paradise or the elusive filming locations and were on the verge of turning back when, as luck would have it, a 4x4 sightseeing tour from Queenstown stopped next to us. Thank God for Nomad Safari's who took pity on us, gave us a cup of tea and pointed out the exact locations which, typically, we were actually standing next to (much to the annoyance of the sightseers who had probably paid a fortune for the trip!)

We took the return journey more slowly to appreciate the stunning scenery that the Paradise valley offers; mountains, ancient beech forests and the Dart River. Paradise definitely lives up to it's name and in places you can even imagine the Orcs marching to Helms Deep right next to you!

In the evening we 'free camped' in a Department of Conservation site called Twelve Mile Delta - the most wonderful place we have camped by far. We watched the sunset turn the Remarkables a gorgeous shade of pink then fell asleep to the sounds of Lake Wakatipu lapping against the shore.

The next morning we continued our mission to find some more Lord of the Rings locations, specifically where Smeogal caught his coneys (fish). We really should have learned our lesson by now and after an hours steep climb we arrived at Lake Dispute which, although was very lovely, wasn't what we had come to see. Beth wanted to go back to the van and have some breakfast - what most normal people are doing at 8am on a Sunday morning. But no, Steve was determined to locate the exact place so onwards we climbed. After an hour, Beth almost choked with delight when she saw another 2 trampers walking towards her and, caught up in her desperation to go back to the van and put her feet up, called out 'do you know where Smeogal caught his Coney's?'. She might as well have asked them something cryptic like 'which way does the moon shine if the buzzards are flying north' because Lord of the Rings fans they quite clearly were not. She had to feel sorry for them as they scarpered away quickly in the opposite direction. In the end, even Steve had to admit that we obviously weren't going to find the place and so gave it up as a bad job and headed back to the van. But not before Steve had to wrestle the doomed Lord of the Rings filming location from Beth before she threw it as hard as she could into Lake Dispute.