Queenstown

View of Queenstown from top of gondola

We spent four nights in Queenstown area, actually staying in a beautiful vrbo accommodation in the nearby town of Lower Shotover.

Queenstown is renowned as the adventure capital of New Zealand, because of the many activities available in the area. These activities includes things like bungy jumping, sky diving, white water rafting, jet boating, para sailing, para gliding, skiing, mountain climbing, hiking, biking, golf, wine tours, boat tours, farm tours and visits to fiords and glaciers via bus tour, planes or helicopters are available. We did not undertake all of these, only for a lack of time (laughing out loud).

The town has the feel of a place like Banff Alberta, only probably bigger as the area has a population of over 50,000. Queenstown is set on the shore of Lake Wakatipu. It is surrounded by mountains, notably on one side by a mountain range called The Remarkables. Queenstown is one of the most expensive destinations in New Zealand and a very busy tourist hub. For a small city the cbd is full of expensive outdoors activity type and boutique shops.

On day 1 her we explored the town. We parked down by Lake Wakatipu and had a walk along the shore. We then explored around the central business district and had a look in some shops. That got us hungry and we went for a famous Queenstown delicacy, the Fergberger. This is a renowned Queenstown hamburger place. It has large lineups outside, though it went along pretty good. We had a burger and fries and it was delicious. After our treat, we headed up to the ski hill gondola and took a ride to the top. After taking in the views we tried our driving skills on the “Luge” run. Now this is really a toboggan on wheels on a winding paved track that starts at just below the hilltop and runs quickly downhill. Each rider must do a driver safety check before taking off and no cell phones are allowed to be held while driving. We did three runs, which we had included in our gondola experience. After this it was time to make our way back to our lovely vrbo and Gale cooked a great supper.

On day two we had a full day tour to Milford Sound. This will be covered in a separate page.

On day three in Queenstown area we took a 20min day trip to Arrowtown, a town that was a former gold mining hub, that is now a quaint tourist village. We enjoyed walking around the town and visiting the various crafty shops and also some historical buildings in the town.

Her are some pictures from day 1 and 2 in Queenstown area: