About 45 minutes from Queenstown is the small township of Glenorchy. Last Sunday I took the opportunity to drive from Queenstown and have a look around.

I’ll mostly let the photos do the talking on this post, but lets say its a gorgeous place to visit, so don’t miss it if you get the chance!

There are a few places to stop along the way if the mood takes you stop and take a photo.  There isn’t much along the way except amazing scenery.

Once you get to Glenorchy, you are surrounded by mountains and the town itself sits on the edge of Lake Wakatipu.

Centre of this next picture you will see a couple of buses – that was a film crew.  I heard the next day that Taylor Swift was in Queenstown, and had been shooting a music video in the North Island, so this maybe was something to do with that?

It was also used heavily in the Lord of the Rings trilogy for various locations as well as The Hobbitt movie. It has also been a location in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Prince Caspian in the Narnia series and the TV mini-series Top of the Lake.

There are also some ruins of the old Mount Earnslaw Hotel.

The bustling centre of town features a petrol station and a handful of cafes.

The day I visited, the local village fair was running.  This was a combination of home-baked cakes, used books, bric-a-brac and other assorted items.  I wasn’t tempted to be parted with my money even though I looked before and after lunch.

There was also some “entertainment” of a duet singing.  Now I don’t like to say anything rude about them, as it was very brave of them to sing in front of a crowd, but perhaps they may like to run a stall instead next year?

I did an entire post about the Glenorchy War Memorial so be sure to check that out if you missed it.

On my way back to Queenstown, I stopped at the little Glenorchy cemetery.  There were recent markers on some of the older graves.

Then back to Queenstown I went, stopping along the way to enjoy the view.