Dart River / Te Awa Whakatipu
The Dart River / Te Awa Whakatipu flows through rugged forested country in the southwestern South Island of New Zealand. Partly in Mount Aspiring National Park, it flows south-west and then south for from its headwaters in the Southern Alps and the Dart Glacier, eventually flowing into the northern end of Lake Wakatipu near Glenorchy. Ngāi Tahu called the river "Te Awa Whakatipu". It was named as the Dart in the 1860s by a runholder, William Gilbert Rees, who chose the name for the river's swift flow. The current dual name was made official  as part of the Ngāi Tahu Claims Settlement Act 1998. Several popular tramping tracks are nearby, notably the Rees-Dart Track, which follows the valley of Te Awa Whakatipu and the nearby Rees River. Jetboats operate on the river. The Dart River / Te Awa Whakatipu, as many other areas in and around the Glenorchy and Queenstown area, has also been the location for many scenes filmed for "The Lord of the Rings" film trilogy. Examples of these locations are Isengard, filmed at Dan's Paddock and Lothlórien in the forests slightly further north. The upper valley was the site of  one of New Zealand's worst light aircraft accidents in 1989, when an Aspiring Air Britten-Norman Islander crashed, killing all ten people on board.