The exotic wildlife of Deer Park Heights.

Looming 600 meters above the city lies Queenstown’s best kept secret, Deer Park Heights. Scratch that. It’s not really a secret at all since they play ads for it on the radio every five minutes, promising spectacular 360 degree panoramic views of the Wakatipu Basin and encounters with “exotic wildlife” such as sheep, horses, pigs, goats, deer, llamas, and alpacas. I suppose calling llamas and alpacas exotic isn’t too much of a stretch, but they’re going to have a hard time convincing me with the sheep. Fun fact: New Zealand has an impressive population of 40 million sheep to its 4 million people.

Still, we thought we’d give it a gander and drove on up. For the cost of $20 per car we were allowed to roam the dusty roads of the 800 hectare working deer farm. I think that’s something I haven’t mentioned yet. Here on the south island, there are numerous deer farms and venison can be bought in the supermarket just like beef, pork, or chicken. There could be deer farms in the US as well, but I’ve certainly never seen any. It would be a bit silly, since we have such an overabundance of deer that they routinely chuck themselves in front of cars speeding down the highway.

For the low price of $1 coin we filled up a large tin with “animal nuts,” which essentially looks just like the pellets you find at any petting zoo and set off to drive around feeding crazy animals. Here I am with a few alpacas:

Alexa, as you may know, holds a special hatred for any non-human animals. Fairly recently she made an exception in the form of her mom’s dog, Shuggy, but otherwise fears/hates animals. Yet she volunteered to feed a baby piglet and, with some persuasion, even an alpaca.

Cost of admission to Deer Park Heights: $20
Bucket of animal nuts: $1
The look on Alexa’s face after having alpaca eat from her hand:

Priceless.

Apart from its animals, Deer Park Heights’ main appeal is the stunning views of Queenstown and its rugged terrain. The latter made it an ideal filming location for several scenes from LOTR: The Two Towers. Most of them were spots that only super nerdy film-buffs would recognize, but we found one that looked familiar. Remember the scene where Aragorn is fighting an orc on the edge of a cliff and then he falls off into the river below? Here’s the spot:

And that’s me hanging on for dear life! Oh no. Actually there isn’t a river far, far below, but just another ledge and then a gradually-sloping hill. For the movie they superimposed the Kawarau River (the one we traversed on a jet boat) into the shot. It isn’t too much of a stretch, since the Kawarau River is visible from parts of Deer Park Heights. Deer Park Heights also served as the filming location for a 1986 Disney movie called The Rescue, and a movie set (a Korean Prison) still remains. The farm is also being used for the upcoming movie, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, so maybe we'll recognize some of the scenery when that comes out.

For those of you coming to visit us in the coming months, you’ll be thrilled to know that you’re flying into the largest, most state-of-the-art airport in the world. Behold, Queenstown Frankton Airport:

On the bright side you won’t have to worry about it being a terribly busy airport.

As we left Deer Park Heights, we passed by this fellow:

Hugest deer I’ve ever seen in my life. For perspective, check out how big his head is when he decided to come closer to our car to investigate. Fortunately Alexa closed the window just in time.

So that's about it for Deer Park Heights, and about all there is to say for this entry. Until next time... go see a dentist if you have teeth like that deer. Gross!