Paradise

Paradise is a rural locality in the Otago region of the South Island of New Zealand. It lies on the eastern side of the Dart River at the head of Lake Wakatipu, close to the settlement of Glenorchy. Sheep and cattle farming is carried out in the surrounding area. The locality was used as a location during filming of The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy, where it represented Parth Galen and parts of Lothlorien, specifically the area which the Fellowship first enters. A.W. Reed records that the locality was first known as Paradise Flat, and that a popular (but not universally accepted) view is that the name was given because of the abundance of Paradise shelducks. Another contention, supported by an article by Alfred Duncan entitled...