Deer Park Heights

I will go ahead and warn the audience - this particular blog is going to be video intensive. On Thursday, we visited Deer Park Heights just outside of Queentown, and pictures just don't do it justice. It is essentially an animal park. You feed and pet the animals at your own risk (again, no lawsuits).

This first video is of an alpaca and some of the other animals that we first encountered. The alpacas would let you pet them as long as you were feeding them. You would not believe how soft alpaca fur is. The ducks move in for the food that hits the ground.



This little guy cracked us up. He kept sticking his head through the fence and doing this thing with his mouth to get people to feed him. He was quite entertaining.



This donkey looks like a prison inmate. He looked so pitiful, he garnered the sympathy of some of the people in our group.

No Liz. He is just a donkey. Don't kiss him!!!












The bobbing pig here was the funniest animal we saw all day. If you brought food close to him, he would open his mouth and bob his head back and forth in anticipation. We spent a good deal of time laughing at him.



As I introduce it in the video, this is a big red deer. I introduce it for my dad's sake, because these red deer were bigger than any deer I have seen in TN, IL or PA. As you can see, these deer will eat out of your hand. Wouldn't be very sporting to shoot a deer that walks right up to you anyway (Sorry Dad). Interestingly, there were deer farms all over the South Island of New Zealand. Apparently, venison is one of the largest exports of New Zealand next to sheep's wool.



Liz, Rachel and Tim petting a deer.












This video is titled "Running of the Goats". We pulled into an area where several goats were standing on an embankment watching us. Liz rattled the food can, and these goats started running at us from all directions. It was hilarious. They came from everywhere.



I introduce you to Liz Green Nagy, the Goat Whisperer. She has quite a raport with these goats. Actually, I guess it was the can of food that she was holding. These goats are not shy.



In case you were wondering, this is a Korean Prison on the top of Deer Park Heights. Apparently, they shot a movie here in the 1980's that had a Korean Prison. For whatever reason, they decided to leave it standing. So, you can travel to Queenstown, NZ to see all of the sites where The Lord of the Rings Trilogy was shot, and you can go to the top of Deer Park Heights and visit the Korean Prison.

Later in our adventure, we rattled the bucket again. This time, a llama galloped down the hill for some food.



This llama became quite enamored with Rachel (or the food she was carrying). Someone at the first stop told us that llamas will spit if they become upset. After that, Rachel no longer cared to be too close to the llamas. She was trying to get away from this one once she ran out of food, because she was afraid it would be mad at her.



This is a video of an absolutely enormous buck, and a tour bus driver feeding him. Apparently, the bus driver is also Steve Irwin reincarnated because he gave Liz all sorts of rude instructions about how she shouldn't feed the deer... right after he did it. He must have completed some classes at Deer Feeding school or something. He obviously did not see the spell that Liz cast on those goats earlier.



This is a beautiful shot of 2 beautiful bucks standing above us. They really were spectacular animals. If I ever saw one of these bucks while hunting, I think I would be too much in awe to muster a shot.



On the way down the mountain, we encountered some coos (Scottish for cows). We couldn't ever get them to lift their heads from grazing to get a better shot. In addition to these guys, we saw some American bison and a yak on the way up.






This video gives shows the view from the top of Deer Park Heights. That is Queenstown below. What an amazing view. The part in the second Lord of the Rings where the Ranger is pulled over the cliff by the Orks was filmed at this location.



Tim and I at the top of Deer Park Heights.

I had to post the picture of the mountain across from us, with the windey road. It reminded me of a bigger Lombardi St. (San Fransisco).

A beautiful shot of the valley and river.

A view from the top.

This is the car that carried us around the South Island of New Zealand. It was a reliable little thing and had plenty of leg room (Hyundai really makes a good product these days).








I conclude this blog with a shot of Queenstown from the top of Deer Park Heights. It was an AWESOME DAY... and it wasn't even lunch time yet.



REFLECTIONS - Poo Addendum



If you are a regular reader of this blog, you will remember my Reflection on Australians and their marketing abilities of all things poo. Chick poo, cow poo, horse poo and alpaca poo are all actively traded on the spot market in Australia. It appears from the local Queenstown newspaper that New Zelanders have some "poo problems". Tim and I shot this photo of the paper while sipping our Starbucks the morning we left Queenstown.