Small-group Lord of the Rings and scenic tours from Queenstown up the Dart Valley to Glenorchy, half day or full day.
Pure Glenorchy runs small-group tours from Queenstown up the road to Glenorchy and the Dart Valley, where a good deal of Middle-earth was filmed.
The Lord of the Rings tour takes in locations used for Isengard, Amon Hen, Lothlorien and Ithilien, with guides who know the detail of how the scenes were put together. There's a costume box at the Lothlorien site if you want the photograph. It runs as a half day or a full day, the longer version going further up the valley.
They also run the Bob's Cove nature walk, scenic trips into Skippers Canyon and up to the old gold settlement at Macetown, and private charters.
The drive itself is a large part of it: the road hugs the western shore of the Wakatipu with the Humboldt Mountains ahead, and it's one of the better hours of driving in the country. Book ahead over summer.
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