New Zealand, South Island
Queenstown, New Zealand
With towering Mountains and a lakeside location, Queenstown is a spectacular town to visit during the summer season. This is a destination which provides visitors with adventure, natural beauty and fantastic food!
This stunning town is located on the South island of New Zealand, nestled in the Remarkable mountain range at the edge of Lake Wakatipu. Lake Wakatipu, is a 80km-long glacial lake, and derives its name from the Māori Whakatipu-wai-Māori, often interpreted as "growing bay" or associated with the "trough of the giant" legend. The name stems from Māori legends of a sleeping giant (Matau) whose beating heart causes the lake’s unique 20cm tide-like rise and fall every 25–27 minutes
Queenstown has a wonderful town center with shops and restraunts of all cuisines, surrounded by a lot of hotels, apartments, expensive condos and single family homes. It is no wonder that the houses in this town are built with one architectural theme...Face the lake and capture its views through large glazed window walls. Here is an example of one of the houses and the beautiful view in front of it! Absolutely Stunning!
View of the house
View in front of the house
The town is a perfect base which allows access to a variety adventurous and exciting ventures such as Paragliding, Bungy Jumping, Jet boat riding, Segway rides and Diving in lake Wakatipu. This blog and the attached video clips shows the fun you can have when you come down here. So, Lets get started!
Where to stay in Queenstown:
We stayed at the Queenstown Sofitel which is conveniently located in central Queenstown. It is within walking distance to all the shops, restraunts and tourist offices. Book in advance and ask for a room on the 5th floor. These rooms usually have balconies where you can have a morning cup of tea and catch the view of the mountains or the Lake. The breakfast buffet is huge and a hearty breakfast will fuel you for all the adventures of the day!
Click on this link for Sofitel Hotel, Queenstown
Day 1
SKyline Queenstown
Plan to start the day by heading over to the "Skyline, Queenstown" for a Gondola ride at Bob's Peak. At the top, there is a viewing deck that allows you get some spectacular pictures of the Remarkable mountain range, the town and the Lake. The viewing deck is part of big building which houses a restaurant, gift shop, restrooms etc.
View of the Lake from the top
This is also where you can get the Luge ride which is highly recommended and is a lot of fun. Skyline offers a variety of luge packages for different prices . The Luge station requires you to walk from the cable car station down a steep path to the entrance. Then you take the chairlift up to the starting point of the luge
There are two tracks: one for the beginners and one for the experts. We took the three ride package, with the first being the beginners ride so you can get used to the equipment and then the expert where you can really zip down. They give you good instructions at the start point and launch you down the beginners path. After the first ride you get the hang of it and then you can take the expert track on the subsequent rides. If you want more rides you can buy the pass accordingly.
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| Beginner and Expert tracks for Luge ride |
Here is a tip that might help you from walking up a steep path when the rides are completed: Instead of walking back up the steep path you came down earlier, take the chair lift back up to the entrance. There is a walkway from there down to the Skyline station which is a lot better than walking up!
Click on the link below for Luge website and information on the rides and packages :
The luge ride will take up most of your morning, so plan for the Paragliding adventure in the afternoon.
Paragliding
If you have not done this sport before, Queenstown is the ideal location to try this adventurous activity. Depending on the direction of the winds the adventure can take place above Lake Wakatipu or Coronet peak. When we took the ride the winds did not favor us to glide over the lake, so we had to go to the Coronet Park location, which is also very beautiful. The adventure begins by the crew getting you properly fitted up with the harness, helmets etc.
You ride tandem with the guide operator who is extremely skilled at his job and who takes you over the mountains, catching the winds. We had a perfect sunny day and the feeling of peace and calm is surreal. Towards the end the guide takes you on some wild swings which are thrilling and you can catch this in the video clip below:
The link to my paragliding ride is shown below
Check out the official website for the company that offers these adventures below;
Downtown Queenstown
Having done all this, its time to explore the bars and the restraunts in town during the evening. Keep in mind that during summer, the days are long in the Southern hemisphere. Queenstown center is not very large but it is lively especially in the evening. There are lots of restraunts, shops, ice cream parlors, and of course bars. In summer the weather is great for outdoor dining.
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Downtown Queenstown
Madame Woo
Lower Ballarat Street has a lot of restraunts with different ethnic cuisine styles. I would suggest stopping by Madam Woo. It has a Malaysian cuisine and serves up some of the most delicious Malaysian style prawns.
Call ahead and book since they do get busy during peak dinner times.
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The locals say you haven't been to Queenstown if you haven't tried the worlds biggest burger called Fergburger. This iconic eating place on Shotover street has lines that stretch a block at anytime of the day. The burgers are at least 6" in diameter, if not more and with all the fixings it is more than a meal! New Zealand is renowned for both the quality of its beef and lamb and the burgers come with both kinds of meat. So try both!
Fergburger and Fergbakery
The other delicacy, iconic to New Zealand are the savory pies. They come with various fillings such as Mince and peas or lamb etc. They are worth trying but are pretty large and can be very filling! You can buy these pies in the FergBakery which is next to the main Fergburger shop.
It is quite common to buy the pies or burgers and take your food to the Harbor front and enjoy it there.
Click on the link below to the Fergburger website.
Travel further down Ballarat street and you end up at the Harbor front. This again is a lively place in the evening with street performers, magicians etc.
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Day 2
Segway ride and Rose Garden
Spend this day by taking a Segway tour of the lake front and the suburbs. The guide of this tour gives you a detailed Queenstown history of how the first settlers arrived in 1853 and started farming. Then gold was discovered in the area and the population exploded. After the gold rush the town remained relatively quiet until 1988. This is when A. J. Hackett started a bungee jumping enterprise and Queenstown was well on the way to establishing itself as the "adventure tourism capital of the World".
The Segway ride is well choreographed and laid out. You start with about 10 minutes of practice in a parking lot with the instructor. Once you are comfortable with the operation you start at the One Mile car park on Lake Esplanade road and zip all the way through the town onto the Rose garden. You get some time there to take photos which will be shown below. From there you go along the lake into the residential are where you get to see some fabulous houses with a great view of the Lake. The whole ride along with stops and narrative from the guide is about 2 hours.
Review the map shown below for the route:
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Get more information by clicking on the link below:
The tour is conducted by SEGWAY on Q
Queenstown Rose Garden
The weather in Queenstown is ideal for plants and flowers. The town has a beautiful botanical and rose garden within walking distance of the town. The roses are in full bloom during the summer season that spans from November upto April . Spend a few hours taking in admiring the vibrant colors of the roses.
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The Segway ride and the rose garden will consume your morning. Then plan on having lunch at one of the many cafes that are located in the "Steamer Wharf" complex.
Walter Peak High Country Farm
Round out the day with the boat and farm tour to the Walter Peak farm. This farm is situated on the south side of Lake Wakatipu and is about a 45 minute ride on the steamship TSS Earnslaw. Take the option for the dinner cruise. You reach the beautiful lakeside venue with beautiful buildings and a gorgeous garden.
T.S.S. Earnslaw
Walter Peak Club house.
Beautiful Landscaped gardensOnce you disembark from the cruise ship you arrive at the farm clubhouse where you have cocktails and a sumptuous dinner. The staff is very attentive and the service is excellent . After dinner you walk up through the beautiful gardens to an amphitheater where you get to see the process of how sheep are sheared. The young lady who did the demonstration was extremely knowledgeable about the process. It was amazing to see her drag and handle the large sheep and give you a demonstration of how to shear the wool off this animal. Sitting peacefully near her is the sheepdog. the attached video shows the entire process of the sheep shearing and the herding of sheep into the corral by the sheepdog. Click on the link below and enjoy the video!
Day 3
Milford Sound, New Zealand
Milford Sound (Piopiotahi) is a stunning, glacier-carved fiord in New Zealand's Fiordland National Park, renowned for Mitre Peak, cascading waterfalls (like Stirling Falls), and wildlife such as dolphins and penguins. A boat cruise is the must-do experience, best booked during the first or last slot to avoid crowds. There are many operators who offer tours to Milford Sound as this is one of the most popular sights to see in this area. The trip day is long when you take the bus or private van but you get to see a lot of the natural beauty. I have captured these sights in the attached photos and video. You can also book a helicopter ride and boat however the cost high and the trip may get cancelled due to cloudy conditions. My advice is to take the road trip.
The road trip commences at 7:30 am and you return back to Queenstown by 8PM. Its a long day but well worth it. Milford Sound is about a four hour drive each way. With spectacular stops along the way, the journey to Milford Sound is as good as the cruise of the Sound itself. The bus drivers are knowledgeable about the terrain and give a good explanation of the sights and sounds. For the first two hours you drive by enormous farms having an abundance of sheep, cows ,horses and even Llamas grazing the fields. The pastures are abundantly green and the vistas are spectacular.
Once you Cross the town of Te Anau the terrain starts to get mountainous and the plains change to heavy forest.
On the way the tour makes a couple of stops. One of the stops is the location that was used during the filming of "Lord of the Rings" movie. It is a spectacular and huge meadow where the battle scenes were filmed and it is worth the stop.
The next stop was a beautiful meadow, full of wild grown lavender flowers.
This is followed by stops where you get to see the fast flowing rivers fed with mountain snow melt. The guide provides you information regarding the road and terrain during the various stops. The Milford Road (SH94) to Milford Sound was primarily built by New Zealand government workers, many of whom were victims of the Great Depression, starting in the 1930s and finishing in 1954. Construction was incredibly harsh, with workers using pick and shovels to carve the road and the 1.2km Homer Tunnel through rugged mountains.
Fast flowing rivers fed by mountain snow melt
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Once you have arrived at Milford Sound you are dropped of by the harbor which has numerous jetties where the tour boats are docked. Its all well orchestrated and the tickets are part of the tour package.
The Boat trip is about two hours and it includes lunch, drinks and a lot of opportunities for taking photos from the top deck. The winds are strong and cold even in summer so be prepared with the warm jackets. We found the ideal spot on the top deck that was right next to the enclosure that houses the boat exhaust piping. Its provides warm air and also allows a sheltered space where you can still get some good photographs such as the one below.
I will end by stressing that if you are in the South Island, please make it a point to visit Milford Sound.
Please review the video, click the link below regarding the whole trip:
Day 4
Bungy Jumping
No trip to Queenstown, New Zealand is complete without experiencing the Bungy Jump by A. J. Hackett. In their website they describe the origin of this event as follows:
The Bungy Origins
Bungy jumping began with a small group of adventurous people in Vanuatu. For centuries, they would fearlessly fling themselves from huge towers with merely a few vines tied around their feet. They called it ‘land-diving’, and legend says that it started when a mistreated wife threw herself from a tall tree, saving herself with the vines while the husband fell to his death.
The event was reconstructed annually, only by women. Eventually men would join in to prove their courage, and the tradition is upheld to this day.
Then in the 1980's two young men, Hackett and Henry van Asch worked on developing the bungee cords as we know today and developed the sport into an enormous business. Their first plunge was a sneaky one taken at the Eiffel tower, leaving all the Parisian police stunned. They were arrested but let go. They would become world pioneers of commercial Bungy Jumping . To learn more about this company visit :
We booked two rides with them: one was at the Kawarau bridge and the other at Nevis. Both are exciting rides with Nevis being the biggest and scariest.
In Kawarau you can do the Zip ride and the Bungy Jump. However the jump on this site is not as deep as the one in Nevis. Its still fun and worth doing it. In the video clip at the end of this blog you can see the swing and Bungy jump at this site.
Jumping Of Kawarau Bridge
Taking the Zip ride at Kawarau Bridge
The next stop is the Nevis site which is high above in a gorge . The jumping off point is situated in a suspended platform high above the gorge and it is reached by taking a cable car. The platform is manned by some incredibly trained personnel who, harness and secure shackles. they do rigorous check which is done by two separate technicians. Once your turn is up they lead you to a chair where they attach the Bungy cords and weights. That it! its now time to take plunge of a lifetime. They remind you to just lean off the edge and go over. No macho jumps or you might swing awkwardly and ruin everything!
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| Nevis Bungy Jumping platform |
There was a feeling of dread when I was at the edge of the platform but once I leaned forward and started to fall, my mind became calm and the feeling of dropping fast was exhilarating. The wind rushes by, and your eyes are focused on the approaching stream below. There is pretty sharp jerk when you reach the bottom and the straps dig into your thighs, but as you bounce back the pain eases. You are instructed that as you bounce back up you are to try and release a strap at your feet so that you turn upside. It takes a few rebounds before you manage to do that. I did see a couple of people who were not able to release the strap that were upside down as they were pulled up.
Click on the link below
That was our morning session of fun.. now it was time to return to Queenstown and have more thrills in the Lake!
Shotover Jet
In order to get the best out of these rides look at the weather report for a clear day and book these early. The Shotover jet ride is offsite on Shotover river. The company provides transportation from Queenstown to the Shotover Canyon and this is the best way to get there.
.png) | jet boat drivers are extremely skilled at their work. |
The ride is really awesome. This thrilling jet boat ride takes place in the Shotover canyon with high rock walls. The boats fly down the canyon at very high speeds and the highly skilled drivers take the boats within inches of the canyon walls. They do numerous 360 degree spins within the narrow canyons. Its high speed all the way and its a good thing you are strapped in well. The river in the canyon is surprisingly shallow as you can see from the photos. For more information visit the Shotover Jet website at:
To see how exciting the ride is review the video link below
Day 5
Shark Ride - Hydro attack
Round off your final day in Queenstown by heading over to the Harbor front to catch what I consider the most exciting ride. Its called the Hydro Attack. This is a high octane ride that is taken in small jet boats shaped like F-16 fighter jets. The ride is taken on Lake Wakatipu which can get quite choppy. You are taken out in the open waters and then transferred into the jet boats. The boats are watertight, noisy, fast , bumpy and overall as you will see in the video, a damn good ride. Once again spend the money and get your own ride video.
If you want to get a preview of how exciting this ride is check out my video on the link below.
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I hope I have been able to give you good roundup of all of the exciting things you can do in Queenstown, New Zealand. Take this trip and you will remember it for ever!