Queenstown

After the trip from Wanaka, we arrived in Queenstown in the late afternoon. Queenstown is known as New Zealand's adventure capitol and has an absolutely stunning location on the shores of Lake Wakatipu surrounded by several mountain ranges. We checked into our hotel just outside of the city center located up on a hill with a marvelous view of the lake and mountains. We took a bus into the town center and walked around looking at all the little touristy shops. For dinner we ate a trendy pizza place and then afterwards had ice cream as we walked along the lakefront. We returned to hotel and planned out the following day that we would spend entirely in Queenstown.

Thursday dawned the first sunny and clear day I had seen since Auckland. It was a stroke of great luck because there is a lot of great scenery around Queenstown. We took the bus into town and then took a brief walk around Queenstown Park, a nice little park on a peninsula at the end of the town center. I safely jumped across a stream to reach another path, but Dad didn't stick the lading and did a barrel roll through a muddy patch. Once he got cleaned up a bit, we walked along the lakefront and looped back around to the town center.

As Queenstown is known for its adventure activities, we decided to take a jetboat trip. Jetboats are shallow draft speed boats that can go fast and do spins and turns. They gave us life jackets and a splash cape and loaded us into a jetboat with a dozen other people. Just outside the harbor, our driver began the spins which were fun and we had to grab on to prevent flying to the other side of the boat. We sped out and spun underneath a bridge and entered the Kawarau River. Further down the Kawarau River is where the filmed the River Anduin portions of the Fellowship of the Ring with the two huge Argonauth Statues. The clear river was very shallow and we could see the rocky bottom. The driver took right next to the trees and rocky sides; close enough I could reach out and touch. We next turned up the Shotover River with beautiful views of the surrounding mountains including Coronet Peak. We turned around and sped back into the biting wind. Although a clear day it was in the low 40's and the wind chapped our exposed faces. The trip lasted about an hour and returned us to the Queenstown dock. Afterwards, we went to a nearby chocolate store and had hot chocolate to warm up.

Our next adventure was to take the Skyline Gondola up to the side of a mountain overlooking Queenstown. The gondola, individual compartments like a ski lift, took us up 450 meters to reach the Skyline complex at 730 meters above sea level. From there we had a stunning view of Queenstown, Lake Wakatipu, and the mountains that ringed the lake. The range of mountains aptly named the Remarkables dominated the eastern view and Cecil Peak and Walter Peak dominated the western view. We were very fortunate that we were in such a scenic spot on the one clear day of the trip. We stayed for a long time admiring the view.

At the Skyline complex there was a downhill luge course on a nicely constructed concrete track. It was essentially go karts without engines going down winding paths on the side of a mountain. From the Skyline building we took a ski lift further up the hill to the start of the luge courses. We first took the easier scenic course with more gradual turns that had great views. The next two runs we each took the advanced run with steeper turns and sharper downhills. We took turns doing the runs and taking pictures. It was great fun and a another good way to enjoy the view.

From the top of the luge area we hiked further up the mountain to reach 900 meters and the starting location for paragliding. The paragliders would set out their rectangular parachutes on the ground and when ready they would pull them up into the wind. They would then run off the side of the mountain and use the parachute wing to catch the wind and glide around the mountain for a while until landing at a rugby pitch in town. We watched both single and tandem jumpers and it was fascinating to see them take off. With the clear views and windy conditions it made for a perfect day to be paragliding so there was a constant stream of people taking off. We climbed a bit further up the mountain and I had a brilliant view of the surrounding area. Truly spectacular. We returned back to Skyline and took the return trip on the gondola back to town. For dinner, we had excellent lamb rump.

Friday morning we left our hotel and after stopping briefly in town drove south out of town. On the way we drove through Deer Park Heights, an area used for many filming locations in the Two Towers. We also drove along the base of the Remarkables, which truly are remarkable. We left Queenstown behind and headed west to Fiordland National Park.

See pictures related to this post