Dart River

These Angus cows are destined to be McDonald's burgers. :(

This Southern Beech tree is 800 years old

Oversized furniture made actors appear hobbit sized

We had to wear "splash jackets" because the driver was crazy and we would have gotten soaked

Mom

We traveled from Queenstown to Glenorchy where we went to Paradise. Yes, Paradise, New Zealand. A bit of a redundancy if you ask me! The Dart River Valley is where scenes from many movies have been filmed including Wolverine, The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings. We took a four-wheel-drive bus tour through the river bed of the Dart River and then walked into a Southern Beech forest where the ancient Maori once lived. The beech trees are magnificent, and the nature walk was lovely. After that, we boarded a jet boat and explored the wonderfully scenic alpine terrain along the Dart River. The jet boat runs by pulling in water, which allows the boat to travel through areas in which the river is as low as two inches in depth. You can hear the gravel hitting the boat's bottom, which our driver called his personal orchestra. The boat travels at high speeds so we saw a huge area in a short time. Our ride ended where the river meets up with Queenstown's iconic Lake Wakatipu.