Photo of the Week: Horseback Riding in Glenorchy

My horse grazing after our ride around the Dart and Rees Valleys in Glenorchy.

On my first visit to New Zealand, I went on a Lord of the Rings tour that took us around Glenorchy to the locations for Isengard, Lothlorien, and the place where Sam & Frodo see the oliphaunts for the first time (just to name a few). I realised very quickly why the Glenorchy area was used for so many different scenes in the movies, since it’s a stunning place surrounded by river valleys and sparkling lakes. In 2008, I jumped at the chance to go back, especially since it fit in so well between a few days in Queenstown and the start of the Routeburn Track.

This time, I chose a slightly slower mode of transportation — a horseback ride. Our afternoon tour took us around a small portion of the Dart and Rees valleys and the terrain was perfect for a beginning rider like myself. However, my horse — Drummy, the seemingly content horse pictured above — was intent on making the ride as difficult as possible for me! I think ‘Ricky Bobby’ might have been a better name for him because I swear he was thinking ‘I wanna go fast, I wanna go fast!’ as he tore past the nicely formed line of horses in front of us. Plus, he was very itchy (or trying to get a message across to me) because he scraped along every tree he could. My leg was an interesting shade of purple the next day!

That said, I found Drummy to be a generally entertaining horse and he made my experience quite a memorable one!

Here are a few other photos from my trek with Dart Stables:

About Kristin
I'm Kristin, a Texan born to an American father and English mother. I've been living in Australia since 2008. My first plane flight was when I was three weeks old and I've been hooked ever since. I never feel quite right unless I have a plane ticket (to anywhere, whether it's Sydney or Sweden) booked in my name. You can also find me on Twitter and Facebook.
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