Glenorchy Area Guide
The tiny, remote town of Glenorchy lies in a superbly picturesque location at the head of Lake Wakatipu, 50 kilometres north west of Queenstown.
Its spectacular mountain and lake scenery forms the gateway to the rugged Mt Aspiring National Park and is a stepping off point for one of New Zealand's Great Walks - the three- to four-day Routeburn Track - and for the Caples and Greenstone tracks.
Glenorchy is almost literally at the end of the road. Beyond, there is nothing except pure New Zealand wilderness, and the remote fields of Paradise, 15 kilometres to the north along a no exit road, the valley named for its beautiful setting - or possibly for its resident paradise ducks.
The area is primarily a staging post for the nearby tramping tracks, but there are plenty of other activities here, including jetboating on the braided Dart River, kayaking or fishing on Lake Wakatipu, horse trekking, skydiving, or, in winter, heli-skiing at the backcountry Invincible Snowfields.
The spectacular mountain scenery in and around Glenorchy and Paradise was used in the Lord of the Rings movies for scenes involving Isengard, Lothlorien, and Amon Hen, and tour operators will happily take you around the locations by air, horseback, four-wheel drive, or jet boat.
Near Glenorchy, just across the Dart River flat lies the tiny town of Kinloch, which began as a logging settlement and farming station, and which now has less than a dozen permanent residents. Just to the south is the small luxury hotel, Blanket Bay, a favoured retreat of Lord of the Rings star Sir Ian McKellen, who rated the lodge (rooms NZ$1,000+ a night) one of the best in the world.
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