Deer Park Heights

Chris picked us up early in Dunedin, and we set out for Queenstown. He gave us a quick look at the town and our hotel to get us oriented, and then drove us up to Deer Park Heights. He was going to take us through the attraction, then drop us back in downtown to do some exploring on our own.

This was his first time at the Deer Park, but after we had worked out the things that we definitely wanted to do, he told us he would fill in some other activities to suit us as he got to know us. He had learned that we were complete suckers for animals, and somewhat interested in seeing places from The Lord of the Rings, so this place turned out to be perfect.

I have the web site at the end of the post, so you can check it out, but the page advertises safaris, where they will pick you up, and you can combine it with a jet boat or helicopter ride. This was not our experience at all. We drove up to the gate, inserted $20 NZD into the slot, and the gate opended automatically. Since we had four people in the car, this was a pretty good deal.

There were maps that you could take you give you an idea of the layout, and various feed stations with empty coffee cans, where you could put in $2 NZD and get the can full of food, thereby being able to feed the animals. Truly, it is a bargain.

The place does have its flaws. Some of the animals are penned, and some are not, but the areas are large enough that if they want to avoid you, they easily can. Therefore, we never saw any bison, though I believe we saw all of the other species. There are no attendants, so I suppose there can be a certain danger to that, though there are no carnivores. (Well, there were these very hairy pigs, but they were penned, and they did not seem particularly fierce. Some day they may find that they have to protect the animals from the people, but I hope not.) Regardless, we had a good time with what we did.

At the first area we had the pigs, chickens, ducks, and donkeys. I guess this was the farm area. Chris got some food (they called it "nuts", but it was more like kibble), and we started feeding the animals. He made a game where we tried to throw directly to specific animals, and scored points for each direct pass. Julie got all three, thus becoming the clear winner.

The donkeys were fascinating in that, rather than grazing at the food from your hands, they shaped their mouths into cups, expecting you to drop the food in. Well, if that's the way they want it.

We got back into the car and drove to the llama area. There was one baby (a cria) with its mother, and she was pretty protective. I was able to pet it, and then she herded it to the side so no one else could. This was a shame because the baby was so soft.

Really, all of the llama petting was made a little more complicated because of the other one pictured. If he looks kind of "in your face", well, that's because he was. He kept trying to get into the food can. We didn't have any objection to feeding him, but we wanted the others to get some too. What we ended up doing was taking a little to give to him and then passing the can to the next person. He kept catching on and going after the next can holder, but in between that we could feed and pet the others.

We drove on and saw more animals. I had never heard of a thar before, but they had them. They're a lot like goats.

Back to the information sheet, one side was a map that showed the roads and the general areas where the different animals could be found. The other side had the list of species and information about them.

The map side also had numbers for different filming locations. Most of the footage shot here was for scenes set around Rohan, so it was primarily for The Two Towers, and then the scene in The Return of the King where Gandalf is riding away with Pippin. That picture of Maria was taken where Aragorn fell over the cliff after the wargs attacked.

One thing that we thought was odd was that there was an area on the map designated "Movie Set". I mean, wasn't the whole thing? We understood better when we turned and came across a Korean prison. Lo and behold, there was an actual set left standing from the movie, The Rescue. I vaguely remembered seeing ads for a film where a bunch of navy brats go in to rescue their parents when the government won't, because, you know, that's likely. I also thought I remembered Sean Astin being in it, but it was actually Kevin Dillon and the kid who played Skippy on Family Ties. I guess for Sean I was thinking of B.R.A.T. Patrol, but that's okay, he was in a different movie that filmed here, even if he wasn't in those scenes.

What was funny was that Chris had just been saying that they ought to have some sort of coffee stand or something in the park, so once we saw that, the obvious thing was to put in a bento stand. In reality though, the set is falling apart, and is fenced off because of how dangerous it would be. Maybe it's just as well that the Rohan set was taken down.

We did have one more animal encounter that I want to share. The last animals we fed were the feral goats. "Feral" makes them sound more ferocious than they are. All it means is that domestic goats went into the wild, and kept breeding, and it does not make them particularly dangerous, but they can be food aggressive, just like tame goats are.

Anyway, we went in, and started feeding the goats. Maria had the coffee can, and this one goat was following her around, and stuck his face right into the can, and she got scared and dropped it. Now all of the goats went for it.

That could have been funny on its own, but then Chris said "Now that's two dollars wasted." There could not have been more than an inch of food left in the can, because we had been using it at many stops. But the Scots are cheap, and it's funny.

We had a good time.

http://www.thedeerpark.co.nz/